Wishing
by BlackSkinnyJeans101
Summary: Max was kicked out of the flock when she was wrongly accused of helping out the School. Now Max lives with her young daughter that wants to meet her family, but mostly her daddy. She becomes painfully sick and her dad is the only one that can help her. Now the flock is living with Max and they are known as heroes world wide, can they all find love? FAX, NIGGY, others
1. Chapter 1

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**One**_

_######################_

"I don't care that I'm four days late! I get paid tomorrow! Please just give me until this time tomorrow night!" I yelled into the phone and the man replied, trying to calm me down but I only yell some more. He finally agrees and I breathe a sigh of relief after slamming the phone down on its receiver.

After a second of staring at the snow covering the grass outside, I dropped down at the kitchen table. My hands tugged at my hair and I heaved a sigh, trying to calm myself down enough to drink my coffee. Living without the flock was harder than I thought it would be when I was kicked out. Yes, I was kicked out of the flock because they thought I was betraying them after I willingly followed Ari into his huge white truck. They didn't know it was for their own protection, but that was four years ago and I almost completely forgot about it.

No one knew I was pregnant at the time so after I broke out of the van half way to the School, I went for the closest place. I flew all the way to Alaska, not realizing I was flying for two, and bought a room at a motel. The flock wouldn't take me back even if I tried to explain, so I decided I'd just give them their space. Eight or nine months later Riddle was born at a local hospital where my friend worked as a nurse; she was the one that held my hand as I was in labor.

Fang wasn't there for the birth of his own child and I felt bad that I didn't at least send a letter or called or something. But instead he has no clue in Alaska he has a little girl waiting for her daddy to 'come home'. She loves to tell her friends about how her daddy is out saving the world from bad guys. And how he's handsome and loves her more than the whole world, and how we would be a big happy family soon with the other flock members.

As far as I know the flock was now in Arizona with my mom and Ella with Total, Akila and their pups. This was all over the news along with people asking if anyone sees me report it immediately. The small town I chose to raise my daughter in had people nice enough, but gossipy enough for any family. Everyone in the town knows who I am, but after I practically begged them they agreed not to call in and tell the flock where I was.

"Momma? Are you okay?" a small voice asks and I look up at Riddle as she stands in the doorway.

Her hand held Fang's old stuffed Black Panther from when we were kids; I sneaked it out of the E-House for her after she was born. It was old, but after being on Fang's bed for fourteen years it still smelled of him and his earthy scent. Riddle didn't go anywhere without the raggedy thing, but I didn't mind a piece of Fang lingering around. All of her waist-length raven black hair was tangled and wild falling in front of her dark eyes. She looked so much like her father sometimes that it hurt.

The little four-year-old watched me shuffle some papers, bills, and other useless papers where I had to pay just for cable. My kitchen had dark blue walls, white tiles, a new refrigerator, and a mahogany eight-person dining room table. Riddle Nikki Ride stood in the doorway looking half asleep and freezing in her pajamas. It was pretty cold in the house because of the snow outside during this time of the year. She shuffled on her feet in her Littlest Pet Shop footie pajamas; I smiled at her small form.

I stood from the table and walked over to her, "Hey, princess, I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" She nodded and yawned then rubbed her eye with her free hand; she threw her arms around my neck.

"My tummy hurts," she whispers and nuzzles her nose into my neck; I walk her up the stairs and into her bedroom. I lay her down on her bed and press the back of my freezing hand to her forehead; she was burning. "And my head hurts, Mommy why does everything hurt?" tears were building in her dark eyes.

I trail a finger down the side of her face as she curls up on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest. A sigh escapes my lips, "Baby, you feel hot, you have to stay home tomorrow because you're sick. I'll take you to Dr. Baker if you don't feel better in two days or so," I mutter and she whines.

She hates hospitals like a mutant would and she hates the smell of disinfectant as if she grew up in the School. But she didn't. She grew up like any normal baby girl without a father there to help out; she was almost normal in a sense. The needles scare her more than any other child, and she would hold my hand in one hand and squeeze the Panther to her chest with the other. She's mumble about how her mommy and daddy were here and then I'd hear her silently crying on the way back to the house, asking for her daddy and mommy to be with her.

"But De'Val _**{A/N: It's pronounced da-ve-l, she's my best friend and I promised to include her here somewhere… so yeah.} **_was going to share her cookies with me and Carly and Meg _**{THAT'S MEEEEEE} **_tomorrow," Riddle complains now and I smile slightly as I brush some of her curly dark hair from her face. She looked kind of red, but she was shivering under her thick Barbie purple comforter.

For the past four years I've worked as a secretary for a large company and Riddle has almost given my boss a heart attack with all her 'cuteness'. He's given me four raises just for bringing her into the office and I figured I'd have to stay home tomorrow to take care of her. Jerry, my boss, would agree immediately and still give me the check and raise he promised last time. All of that work has gotten me from a one-bedroom apartment to a four-bedroom house in the suburbs.

In her room she had light purple walls with gray swirls in random places all over the four walls. She had seven large toy boxes filled with toys, but most of them were from Jerry including most of her nine Barbie dream houses. They were all different but were as tall as her, if not taller with complete sets of furniture and other things for every room. She'll spend hours using the little Barbie girl with the black hair, the boy Barbie with black hair, and a regular blonde Barbie to play out what she wished her life to could like.

One time I walked in to see her playing with the Barbie supposed to be me and the black-haired one that was supposed to be Fang. The supposed me was on the plastic pink couch with a bundle of blue in her arms with a blonde head poking out. And the supposed Fang was sitting beside my Barbie with one arm over the back of the couch with the supposed Riddle sitting on his lap. They were all smiling and Riddle had silent tears running down her cheeks with her hands covering her eyes.

I had dropped down next to her and held her to my chest while staring at the happy fake family in the Barbie house. It took hours to calm her down enough to get her to sleep; I took away the Barbie's for a week. She was happy, usually but she's always wanted to see Fang in person instead of the pictures I had all around the house of the flock. There were some where it was only Fang and I caught in some of the time Fang grinned at me. Nudge caught it on film surprisingly ten or eleven times and Riddle had one of them on her bedside table.

Her bed was covered in darker sheets but a normal Barbie comforter with a family of seven with three dogs on it. She'd always wanted a pet, so I got her a bunny and the cage sits in the corner where Snuffles was sleeping. We went to the mall, she found the pet store, and begged me for months to get her the fluffy white rabbit with dark eyes. I reluctantly agreed and she often closed her door and let him hop around; he knew to do his business in his cage from experience.

"You'll see them in a few days," I reply quietly and leave her for a second to get some stomach medicine from the cabinet in the bathroom. She took some grudgingly then chugged down some water afterwards to get rid of the bitter taste; she wrinkled her nose and handed the small cup back to me.

She snuggled under her covers after a minute and murmured, "Goodnight, love you Mommy," and she almost fell asleep. Until she suddenly added quietly, "Goodnight Daddy," as if trying to keep me from hearing her.

"Night, Riddle, love you too," I said sadly and kissed her forehead before leaving and going down the stairs to my bedroom. The dark blue walls, black blinds, and gray carpet made me remember Fang in so many ways. I had the kind sized bed with one side messed up, the left, and one side made up, the right.

Back in the E-House, Fang always slept on the right when we slept in the same bed and I stayed on the right. My sheets were dark green and the comforter was gray with green polka dots all over it. All of the pillows were different shapes and sizes ranging in dark green, black, white, gray, and navy green. I shut the blinds on my three large windows and climbed into the unmade section of the bed. My hand reached out and flicked off the black lamp on my bedside table; I fell asleep.

"MOMMY!" Riddle screeched from her bedroom; I jackknifed and looked around wearily at my dark bedroom. She yelled again and I was out the door, tying the robe around my waist, and literally flying into her bedroom. I tucked my wings back against my back as I approached her door; I swung it open and saw her curled up under her comforter. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she continued to wail while yelling and then she screeched, "DADDY!"

I dropped down on my knees next to her bed and leaned back against her bedside table and I gathered her against me. She buried her head in the crook of my neck and I stroked her hair while whispering in her ear. Her tears seemed to burn my skin and I almost started crying because I knew she was in pain. This continued for five minutes until I couldn't take it anymore and gave her some sleeping medicine while I tried to call our doctor.

_Max, she needs her father. It won't stop until he's here with her. _And the Voice was back in my head after four years of me being on my own, yes I am eighteen if you haven't guess. I saved the world right before I was kicked out of the flock; the Voice hasn't talked to me since then.

What? I ask in my head, completely confused out of my wits and after a minute I thought it wouldn't answer. Until it did and I fell back against the wall in shock at the words it repeated to me; her father? Riddle cried out in her forced sleep, and I knew it was worth the risk I was about to take if Riddle would be okay. I pulled out some paper and an envelope and started to scrawl a letter on the sheet of paper and a blue ink pen.

_Dear the flock,_

_I realize this is short notice. But I really need you guys to come visit. I'm in Alaska now, and I want to explain everything. I went with them because I was protecting you guys like I always have and always will. I've wanted to try and explain for a while but I knew you wouldn't want to listen. This is urgent, even if you don't believe me, come. I need you guys right now._

_I'm sorry if you ever thought I didn't come back early enough or if I didn't try to write to you soon enough. I'll explain everything as soon as you get here, just give me another chance._

_I Love All of You,_

_Max_

I put it in the envelope, lick it shut, then left the house long enough to put it in my mailbox, and then I went back inside. Riddle was still crying in her sleep and I bit down on my bottom lip as I started for the kitchen. After a few seconds of hesitation, I dialed for three large pizzas then went back up to Riddle. She was awake already and I hugged her to me for a long while until she finally stopped screaming. It took a lot of medicine but she was good enough to eat her large cheese pizza and watch cartoons.

And I was hoping for everything in the world that the flock would agree to come and visit and help me, and Riddle.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Wishing**_

_**Third Person POV**_

_**Two**_

_####################_

Nudge walked down the long driveway to the end where their bright red mailbox, which was filled with bills and such. She pulled down the door of the mailbox and started walking back as she shuffled through the mail. One strange blue envelope caught her eye and she looked at the address to see it was from someone in Alaska; she raised an eyebrow in question. The rest of the flock was down at the ice-cream parlor or school in Angel's and Gazzy's case.

Today was a day off for Nudge's and Ella's high-school and she was grateful for the break from learning. Being normal wasn't as fun or interesting as she thought it would be; she actually wanted to get in a real fight now that she was 'normal'. The world was saved about four years ago and now Nudge was a super star on the news with the rest of the flock. She's been to interviews with and without the flock; Dylan was gone with Fang's gang now.

Not wanting to wait and see later, Nudge ripped open the envelope that was addressed to the flock. She read through the letter on her way back up the road to the house and her eyes widened as she read through it. "FANG! IGGY! ELLA! ANGEL! GAZZY! DR. M!" she started shouting and spread her wings. She flew all the way back to the house as fast as she could just as the flock was landing back on the front lawn. "OMG! MAX WROTE!" Nudge screeched and the paper was out of her hands and in Fang's a half second later.

She squealed as the rest of the flock read it and waited for Fang to give them directions whether they were going or not. "Get packed, we're going on a trip," Fang ordered and the flock trampled each other to get to their rooms. Valencia was out the door last and getting into her car with Ella so they could head to the airport and meet them at Max's place later.

The flock took off from the roof, all of them except Fang talking at once and wondering out loud what was wrong. Fang refused to think Max was playing them and pushed harder trying to go faster, but he couldn't. They'd just have to wait for a while until they reached their leader for the first time in four years. "Do you think she's alright?" Angel asked fearfully as she flew up beside him.

"Yeah," Fang replied absent-mindedly.

"I don't know, Fang! The letter sounded really urgent. Maybe we should write one back and send it before we got there." Nudge rambled on but Fang was already diving through the sky towards a coffee house. The flock followed and they got a table inside while Iggy and Gazzy went and ordered them some smoothies and such from the counter. Nudge ended up writing the letter back to Max on pink paper from the woman behind the counter.

_Dear Max,_

_OMG! Hey! We're on our way, right now! Well we were on our way, then we stopped for a minute so we could write you this! If you haven't guessed yet, it's Nudge. We can't wait to see you! What's wrong? Wait, you said you'd tell us when we got there so I guess we can wait for a little while longer. Oh and we should be there in a few days, this should arrive before then._

_I can't wait! We were totally waiting for you to come back to us. Between you and me I never thought you were a traitor, ever! I wanted so bad to tell the flock straight, but I didn't think you'd take me with you. I felt so bad afterwards, and so did Fang! All he did was sulk around the house until Iggy and Gazzy blew up a part of the woods and Fang had to be a leader!_

_You should have seen him, he was all like 'NO' and Iggy and Gazzy were like 'AAAHHH', but anyways! I can't wait until I get to see you! And I hope you aren't in any danger or whatever! Love ya, Max!_

_Love,_

_Nudge, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Ella, Dr. Martinez, and Angel. But mostly Nudge! YAY!_

They stopped by a mail-place and sent the letter before taking off into the sky again, hoping to get to see Max soon. After they let her walk out on them, they felt terrible when they saw her shoot a glance over her shoulder. She was pleading with them to take her back after they yelled at her, but they forced Fang inside before he could run and try to knock out the Erasers holding onto her. Years later the flock found the Schools were all taken down and there weren't any signs of Erasers of whitecoats anywhere.

Iggy said as they flew, "Do you think she'll forgive us for kicking her out? I have this weird feeling that we did something wrong," they all nodded slightly and looked down as they were nearing the border of Arizona.

"I miss Max telling me not to build bombs," Gazzy admits and wraps his arms around himself as he flew.

Angel sighed sadly, "I miss Max brushing my hair and buttoning up my jackets in the morning."

Nudge nodded and then added to their rant, "I miss Max putting her hand over my mouth and smiling at me and shaking her head while laughing."

Suddenly Fang started to ramble, "I miss her smile, her hair, her scowl, her glare, her terrible cooking, her yelling, and her altogether." The flock was shocked since this was the first time he said a full sentence since Max left with the Erasers in that stupid white van.

What the Erasers didn't know, was the flock followed the van up until Max burst through the backdoors. She flew into the night with the Erasers calling and shooting at her; the flock felt stunned and ashamed. Somewhere in their bodies they knew Max would never betray them, but they let the Erasers talk them into it. And Max went along with it to keep them safe just like she explained in her short and straight to the point letter. The flock missed their mother, sister, leader, lover, and best friend and they would admit it to anyone.

I came home from work a week later with a groggy Riddle in the back seat of my jeep; she stopped screaming for the past week after I sent the letter. I rolled down my driver's side window on my way up my driveway and took the mail out of the mailbox. After a few seconds I parked my purple jeep, carefully placed Riddle on my hip, and rushed inside. A letter from Arizona had arrived today and I couldn't wait to read it and see if they would come and help me with this little problem.

"Riddle your Daddy's coming!" I almost screeched as I said this to my daughter after reading through the letter. Suddenly Riddle was pounding down the stairs, her face in a wide grin and she hopped onto the leather couch next to me with a slight bounce.

She grinned and asked excitedly, "Really, Mommy?! He's coming to meet me and to see you?" I nodded and hugged her to me and felt her forehead, which was slowly getting better now. As always, the Voice was right when it said all she needed to know was her father was going to be with her, at least for a little while.

I smiled as Riddle jumped up and down on the black leather couch, her Black Panther gripped in her small fist. "Here," I said as I clicked the TV to SpongeBob and pulled her down so she was lying on the couch. She snuggled up into her purple blankey with a black rose in the bottom left corner and hugged her Panther to her chest with a grin on her face. "I'm going to make some dinner, tacos?" I asked, she nodded happily and watched the TV screen.

My bare feet slapped against the hard floor of the living room and I smoothed my hands over my black pencil skirt irritatingly. The skirt and blouse were mandatory at my work and I hated it but I had no choice if I wanted a job. I dropped two pounds of meat in one pan and two pounds of meat in the other pan; for extras tomorrow if I don't feel like cooking. You're probably freaked out that I'm using the stove by myself, but I've learned to cook after being a mom for four years; you kind of have to learn if you want to survive.

While the meat browned, I started dicing tomatoes and onions at the kitchen counter with the TV beside my head on. It was on the news showing some kid who'd fallen off of his skateboard and had to get surgery after a very severely skinned arm and leg. He was doing some trick, messed up, and fell six feet out of the air to land and skid on the concrete of the road. I switched off the TV and turned the radio on instead as I drained all the meat then put it back in their pans. Using a measuring cup, I poured water in both pans then put in the seasoning.

It boiled the meat in the mix and I mixed it before turning down the heat and letting it season. I chopped up some lettuce and dropped it all into a large bowl with the tomatoes, cheese, and onions in their own bowls. When the meat was finished, I had to use four bowls to hold all of the meat instead of leaving it in the pan to dry out. Riddle was half-asleep but she was awake enough to hear me call out to get her a few tacos.

"Yummy!" Riddle exclaimed as I set out the pitchers of sweet tea and fruit punch; she was practically jumping up and down. As I was making her a taco, the doorbell rang again and again, but I didn't get it until after I had Riddle set up in her booster seat with four tacos.

I tell Riddle, "Stay here, I'll be right back," and she nods while I go to the door figuring it was my best friend, JJ. But when I opened the door I was shocked to see the flock, my mom, Ella, and Jeb standing there.

"MAX!" Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel squealed and they squeezed me into tight hugs while I tried to scoot out onto the porch. I shut the door to the house and turned to grin and pull Angel back into a tight hug; I made sure to block my mind.

"Hey, guys!" I say, excited to see all of them standing on my front porch looking older and more mature than ever. I pulled Iggy into a tight hug and didn't hesitate to pull Fang in for one after him; I thought this would be awkward but it felt almost natural.

After all of the hugs and such Mom asked, "Can we go inside? Something smells great!" she exclaims, and I smile slightly but fearfully glance at the front door wondering if I should let them in.

"Yeah," Iggy teases, "Did you get take-out or something? Smells like tacos," he says and I could practically see the flock drooling and I knew they must be starving after their flight.

I say seriously, "Actually I cooked the tacos," and they all looked completely stunned about this fact. "Come in," I say before I know what I'm doing and I let all of them into my house; Riddle was thankfully in the kitchen with the door shut to make sure no one could peak in.

"Wow, this is nice," Gazzy marveled and I led them into my living room where there were enough seats for twice the amount of all of us. Thankfully they didn't notice the dolls and other toys thrown around the back of the room where Riddle plays when she doesn't want to be alone in her bedroom.

I sit down in one of the single chairs, "Thanks for coming, and everything, but this is going to be really hard to explain." No one tried to stop me from talking and they didn't interrupt as I told them most of my story. "Well that night when the Erasers came, they came for you guys instead of me. But they broke into my bedroom instead of Nudge's like they planned to. I tried to fight them off and ended up compromising with an Ari-look-alike. These guys were tough, and I mean they were bigger and stronger than the regular Erasers.

"So I agreed to go along with working with them all along instead of letting them take you guys. I knew we wouldn't be able to fight them off, together or not so I gave in instead. They put this earpiece thing in my ears to keep Angel out of my mind so I couldn't talk to her and explain. You guys came out of your rooms just as I got out of my room with the Erasers in front of me and behind me. Then you guys yelled at me and told me to never come back, and I had to agree just to get the Erasers out of there." I took a deep breath and continued.

"About half way there I broke free of my binds and flew through the back doors at the most surprising time. Four Erasers were sitting in front of the door at the time on guard, but they didn't know I'd try to get out while they weren't busy or asleep. So I managed to escape and I wondered if I should try to go back to you guys and explain myself. But I couldn't bear to be pushed out of the flock again, so I turned and headed to Alaska. Every night I went to sleep wishing I could go back, but I couldn't and now I have a good reason why I didn't."

Fang asked quietly as I breathed to a pause, "And what was that reason?" he looks me straight in the eyes. I was going to answer when suddenly all eyes, except Iggy of course, looked behind me and I knew who was there.

"Mommy?" Riddle asked and I refused to look at anyone as I looked down at my folded hands in my lap and replied quietly.

"I was scared."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Three**_

_##############_

"You were scared?!" Ella hops up from where she was sitting and Riddle hops onto my lap; she buried her head into the crook of my neck. "You have a kid, and you were scared?! Max what have you gotten yourself into?! How old is she?!" she was screeching and Iggy was yanking on her arm trying to get her to sit and calm back down and act civilized.

I growled, "Ella, stop. I was scared because I thought you guys would judge me for getting pregnant so early." Riddle looked up at me then around at the flock; she said nothing just like Fang would in this situation. Suddenly, she slid off my lap and ran to the fireplace mantle to grab a picture in a golden frame.

She grinned as she looked from the picture to the flock, "You're the Flock! And you're my grandmother! Which means, Daddy's here!" she started to scan the flock while they all look stunned but I clapped a hand over her mouth first.

"Honey, why don't you let me talk, and you go play with your Barbie's for a minute?" I ask slowly in the voice she knew not to argue to. Angel stood up with a grin while I could feel Fang's gaze trying to burn a hole into my head.

Angel came over to Riddle and asked excitedly, "Hi! I'm Angel, Max's sister in a way! What's your name? You want to go play?" Riddle and Angel ran off to Riddle's bedroom and I leaned back in my chair, groaning.

"Okay," I sighed into my hands, "I'm ready for your questions," I took my hands off my face and looked at all of them.

Nudge was first, "How old is she?" her eyes were wide and she was obviously in shock by all of this. Her black hair reached past her shoulders now and it was curled into thick ringlets. Those big, brown doe eyes were as familiar as I was to Fang and his touch and his kisses. It was obvious she's been in the sun for a while and she caked on the sunscreen too, so she could get that tan she has. She was older and it was surprisingly sad to see her look so grown up while I wasn't there to help her through the girl stages, which I have thank you very much.

"Four," I reply instantly and Nudge nods slowly as if thinking something through; she stands from the couch. I watch her take Riddle's scrapbook from the shelf on the wall and she goes through it with a smile.

"And who is the father?" Iggy spoke up with a large grin because he knew I was glaring at him for the question. He knew exactly who the father was, I bet they all did just because of her age; four years was when I was kicked out.

I sigh and reply, "I didn't know I was pregnant until two weeks after I was kicked out and I realized my stomach was bigger. So I went to the doctor and was told I was going to have a little girl; she's Fang's," I mutter the last part. Fang looks down to hide his startled yet relieved expression; I stare at him until he looks up again and we locked eyes.

"What's her full name?" Mom asks quietly and I can see she's struggling not to jump up and scold Fang and I. We were immature to do _it _at such a young age but we were almost fifteen and we loved each other. The flock was out at a victory dinner since it was the night after we saved the world, together. And I just guess Fang and I got a little too wrapped up, but I didn't regret anything and I never would because now I had a beautiful little girl.

"Riddle Nikki Ride," I say and smile slightly as I think about my cleaver naming skills and Fang did always want a Nikki for a daughter. But I wanted something more original so I decided I would use the name Fang wanted for the middle name instead. Who better to have a daughter named Riddle then Maximum Ride? Fang was now smiling at me, and I looked down as a light blush for the first time in ages took over my cheeks.

The questions continued until the point Jeb asked what I told Riddle about her dad and the rest of the flock. I smiled slightly as I looked down and recalled what I told my daughter when she asked about her dad during dinner. "She asked me one night during dinner after she came home from pre-school looking all sad. I told her that her Daddy was off fighting bad guys to protect her from the bad men. After that she wanted to know more about her family and I told her that her whole family couldn't wait to share their stories with her.

"And I started telling her about me and the flock when we were younger; she was ecstatic when I told her the flock was coming earlier today. I've never seen her so happy before to finally meet her dad, and I loved the way she just smiled. So that's why I mostly wanted you guys to come down here. The other part was she was in a lot of pain where she was screaming and I had to make her go to sleep with forced medication. It was terrible and she was crying but then the Voice told me all she needed was her dad. So that's where the letter idea came in, and I realized she was missing her family and I want you guys to be closer to us."

Nudge was pretty much bouncing in her seat, "You want us to be part of her life and, you know, get her to be awesome like us?" I smiled and nodded at her and I suddenly thought of something that would make her squeal.

"Also, Nudge, I wanted to know if you wanted to be her godmother," then, before she can answer I turn to Fang. It was time to share Riddle with her dad, "As long as it's okay with Fang," I add and Nudge squeals loudly.

No matter what I will always love Fang, and, as he nods and gives a squealing Nudge a smile, I feel like he will be what Riddle needed all along. "Iggy should be the godfather, though," he says seriously and I voice my agreement to this. Nudge hugs Iggy in a death grip and he's slightly startled but hugs her back none the less; I smile at the two.

Suddenly Angel is following a running Riddle into the living room; Riddle runs full speed towards Fang. I watch in amusement as she jumps with all her weight and makes Fang and the chair and her fall back to the floor. I laugh as Riddle squeals and hugs Fang around the neck; he tenses for a second then hugs her back. It takes a minute but I finally pry Riddle off of Fang and introduce the rest of the flock to her and her to them.

Four hours later Ella, Mom, and Jeb were leaving with the rest of the flock staying to spend the night. I decided no matter how fast this might be going that I wanted Fang in my bedroom for the first time. We weren't together again, no, but still this would be fine because we used to snuggle as kids anyways. Angel and Nudge shared one guest bedroom and Gazzy and Iggy shared the other guestroom. Fang followed me upstairs to put Riddle to bed; she had pre-school tomorrow while I had to go to into work until three.

"Night, baby doll," I murmur with my arms crossed and balanced on one side of the bed; I had my knees on the floor. Fang was in the same position on the other side of Riddle's double canopy bed; he smiled at me from across the bed. "Love you," I kissed her forehead before standing up to leave when I noticed Fang wasn't following me.

He tells me quietly, "Go on, I'll be there in a minute," and I nod before walking back downstairs and into my bedroom to change into my bedroom.

***FANG'S POV***

Riddle looked at me with a small smile; her hand latched onto mine and she turned on her side to face me. "Why are you here, Daddy?" she asks quietly and I'm pretty shocked to realize she's already calling me that. Her black hair was falling into her eyes and her olive skin tone looked a lot like mine along with her dark eyes. The only way you know she's Max's was the nose, mouth, jaw, and her shape of eyes with the framing long lashes.

"I wanted to see you and Mommy," I say quietly and she reaches out to touch my black hair as if she couldn't believe I was here. At the moment I was angry Max kept her from me, but just knowing I'll be here now told me I wanted to be a part of her life. I wanted to play the protective Dad role, I wanted to be dragged through toy shops, and I wanted to see those Bambi eyes that came from my eyes instead of someone else's.

She smiles at me a little, "I love you, Daddy," she says quietly and I hug her tightly to my chest. Under her command I sit back with my back to the wall beside her bed and stroke her hair as she falls asleep. It isn't long before she's breathing softly and I couldn't help but kiss her forehead before leaving the bedroom to go downstairs to Max.

Standing in the doorway, I watched through a crack in the door as Max pulls a black tank-top over her black lacy bra. She pulled on really short short-shorts over her matching underwear then pulled her hair into a bun. After a moment she goes into the bathroom and I hear the sink cut on and Max bustling around. I shift through the suitcases Max directed me to put in her room from Dr. M's car and I pull out my black pajama pants. It was freezing outside here and it's so hot in Arizona I didn't think I'd get to use the long cotton pants.

I change in record time and throw my dirty jeans, socks, and shirt into my suitcase but don't bother pulling on another shirt. Max emerges from the master bathroom and stares at me for a moment before shaking her head slightly and switching on her bedside lamp. Looking at her huge bed I realize that half of the bed was made while the other half looked thrashed around in. She had the right half open just like she always did for me back at the E-House; she'd been waiting.

"Hey," she smiles and then she's suddenly hugging me and I freeze just for a second before wrapping my arms around her. "I'm sorry I left like that and I'm sorry I didn't try to get in touch until now," she was tearing up. Her tears trailed down my bare chest and I moved us so I was sitting on the bed with her in my lap and her arms wrapped around my neck.

I whisper things in her ear until she's fast asleep and I put her under the comforter on her bed. Hesitation was evident in my movement but I finally climbed into the right side of the bed and almost fell asleep. That is, until I felt Max curl into my side and I instinctively wrapped my arm around her waist. Her hair fell over my bare chest and I ran my fingers through it as she fixed her head in the crook of my neck. She seemed so peaceful and I decided it wouldn't hurt to try and get closer to her again.

Four years ago the flock forced me away from Max before I could help her and I regret letting them. I should've fought harder and claimed my case, which had to do about her never turning on us. That look on Max's face told me everything that night and I almost ripped Iggy's head off since he wouldn't let me get to her. It pained me at first to know Max had a kid, but I realized that she was mine and I'd almost never felt so… happy before.

The soft beating of Max's heart was pressed against the side of my chest and she was breathing softly. I love Max, and I always will no matter what she does to try and get me to hate her. And I already love Riddle; we were going to be an actual family no matter what happened between Max and I. Life was finally looking up for me… yeah, I know, surprising.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Four**_

_############_

A warm body was pressed to the side of mine and I felt so comfortable that I didn't want to move. I'd missed this feeling. This was the feeling of Fang's arms wrapped around my waist, holding me to him as if his life depended on it. If we were younger I would've jumped away from him and yelled until he got out of my bedroom. But it didn't matter anymore, I just loved the feeling of being with Fang, whether we're a couple or not. Then I shifted so I could get up on one elbow and look down at Fang with a smile gracing my lips.

Ever since we were kids I knew I'd somehow end up with Fang, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. Then I accepted my feelings until Brigid came along and I shoved them back down into the depths of my soul. That night in the desert was amazing and it held the real first kiss Fang and I shared other than the one on the beach; this time I had kissed him back. There was no doubt about it that Fang was still as handsome and sexy as he was when we were fourteen.

His black hair was mussed up, and yet he made it work in a way no other guy could make it look. Those dark eyes were shut, but I could picture the darkness of them with the small golden specks. He was shirtless, of course, and his new 8-pack of abs was hidden with only my thin green sheet. I smiled at his peaceful expression and wished I could wake up like this every morning with him by my side. Suddenly those obsidian eyes flashed open and he grinned up at me; knowing I was watching him.

"Morning," he murmurs and I smile slightly before falling back down on the bed and curling into his side. "See anything you like? Are you feeling better?" he laughs and I smack his chest playfully; we're both laughing. I nod but say nothing at his other question and just stare up at him and his never-ending dreamy eyes. His hair was now thrown in odd directions and the chunk that flipped into his eyes was pushed back with the rest of it.

I roll so I'm hovering over him and I push some black hair from in front of his eyes, "How long were you awake?" He pretends to think about it while I run one of my hands through his hair, trying to get it straightened some. Not that it doesn't look hot either way, though.

"An hour before you woke up," he replies and I smile slightly; his smirk was evident that he was watching me before I woke up, too. His eyes were sparkling, unlike when they came over yesterday and they were bottomless pits of nothing.

"Were you pulling another Edward Cullen?" I ask sarcastically and he chuckles while moving his hands. He pressed them into my lower back and a shiver ran down my spine when his fingers brushed against the showing skin between my pajama shorts and tank-top.

I was going to say something about the night before and apologize for my emotional moment where I cried on him. Until, that is, the door to my bedroom swung open and I immediately went back to my place beside him instead. "MOMMY! DADDY! I'M HUNGRY!" Riddle cries and starts to jump on the bed; I groan and press a pillow into my ears.

"Come on, Riddle," Fang sits up suddenly and stands to swing her around in his arms and set her on his shoulders.

"What about Mommy?" Riddle whines and I smile slightly before throwing my blanket off my legs and removing the pillow from my ears. I stand and pull on my fuzzy purple robe on to keep out the cold even if the heat was turned on high again.

I smile and leave the bedroom with a chatting Riddle and Fang on my heels; we walk down to the kitchen. "Morning," I yawn and sit down at the table for a change instead of having to make my daughter cereal. Iggy is at the stove, Nudge is with Angel looking through magazines, and Gazzy is busy making something on the other side of the table.

We all eat together as a family for the first time in years and I laugh along while stealing glances at Fang. Then I go upstairs and dress in a black pencil skirt that barely reached my knees, a midnight blue blouse, and black strappy heels. "Wow, Max," Nudge says jokingly as I walk down the stairs, tugging the tangles from my hair.

"Shut it, I have to go to work for a change," I tell her and she giggles while the rest of the flock stares, waiting for directions. "Right, well I need Nudge to take Angel to the elementary school to get her registered for me, and I need Fang and Iggy to find jobs if you plan on staying here for a while, and Gazzy I want you to start setting up a security system for me as long as you're careful."

The flock voices their agreements and Fang asks, "What about Riddle?" and I turn to see my daughter still in her pajamas taking her time eating her breakfast. Her school starts in five minutes and my work starts in ten; I didn't have time to drop her off.

"SHOOT!" I exclaim and turn on Fang and Iggy, "New plan, you two drop Riddle off at her preschool before going to find jobs. Oh and I need you two to drop by the store on the way back to the house, okay? Great, see you tonight!" I scurry out the door and to my car before they can say anything else to slow me down.

**IGGY'S POV**

"She really is supermom, huh?" I ask sarcastically and the flock takes turns hitting me in the back of the head. "OW!" I yell and collapse on her awesome couch that was comfier than the bed I had back at the E-House. "Gosh, I was just kidding," I grumble.

Someone hops into my lap and exclaims dramatically, "Oh Iggy it's okay! We still love you!" and then she bursts into giggles. I shove Nudge off my lap and she squeaks as she hits the floor with a light thump; I feel her glaring at my head but I just ignore her looks.

"Don't you have a girl to register?" Gazzy asks Nudge and I listen to her scramble off the floor. My vision is fuzzy now instead of complete darkness and it gets better every day I try to see specific things.

"Let's go Angel!" Nudge yells and the front door slams shut a few seconds later and then the van we rented started up. Nudge was tall enough to count as an eighteen year old therefore she could drive well enough to not need a driver's license.

Ever since Max left I realized I liked Nudge more than just a sister or friend, but I also liked Ella. So far Nudge has been like an alarm on my love meter and I can't help but feel lonely when she isn't with me in a room. Ella has a slightly smaller effect on me; when she leaves a room and I can deal with it but when Nudge leaves it feels as if my wings are gone, too. Fang told me he experienced the same thing when he was still figuring out his feelings for Max and I wondered if I could possibly love Nudge that much.

**FANG'S POV**

"Riddle, just put these on," I ground out and hold up the jeans I pulled out of one of her drawers. She finally had a black shirt on with a red dog on the front but she refused to take off her princess pajama bottoms and purple slippers. Max would kill me if I let her go to school like that.

Then Riddle squeals, "No, Daddy!" and literally jumps over my head and lands on her window seat.

"Come on, Rid," I groan and dive at her but she only jumps over my head again and lands back on her bed. Her arms were crossed defiantly over her chest just like Max did when we were younger and she didn't want to do more flying lessons.

"I don't wanna go to school today!" Riddle pouts and I knew I was going to have to use my new power. With a twitch of my finger, she's forced to fly in the air, limbs flying out, and into my arms

"Done fighting?" I ask as she stares up at me slack-jawed and eyes wide; she nods mutely and slips into her jeans.

"Can I do that?" Riddle asks hopefully and I shrug in response, "Let me try!" she exclaims and holds up her finger. We were in the hall so she pointed her finger at a picture on the wall; she curls her finger in. She was focusing on the photo until it finally flew off the wall and crashed into the wall across from it. "DADDY I DID IT! I DID IT!"

"Yeah," I murmur, "you did it," and I smile at her a little. She giggles as I set her down on the couch in the living room and I get her to put on some red and black tennis shoes. She can love stuffed animals and Barbie's all she wants, but Max put her foot down to the color pink.

Iggy and I have to force Riddle into our van and Iggy ended up with her on his lap in the back seat. I was driving and watching as Iggy jokes with Riddle and she giggles occasionally with her uncle. She was definitely turning into a daddy's girl and I grinned at the thought; this was the first time in years that I've grinned while meaning it. Well, other than the times I grinned last night while I was thinking about Max and I getting back together.

"You have to come sign me in, Daddy!" Riddle explains as we pull into the parking lot and wait for her to get out. Iggy and I share a look before getting out of the van and grabbing one of her hands each. I was tense as mothers all around looked at us and gave me disapproving looks, obviously knowing this was Max's child and that I just had to be the dad.

We walk into the school building and through the first door; a woman sat behind a circular desk decorated with kid's stickers. Her fire-red hair is piled in curls on the top of her head to show her bright hazel eyes. They focus on me and a grin slides onto her too-thick lips and she takes on a flirtatious look. Iggy rolls his eyes and starts to write on a paper clipped to a clipboard; the girl is still staring at me and I shift uncomfortably.

"Hi, Miss Rift!" Riddle cheers with a grin and the woman looks down at her with a small, fake smile.

Miss Rift replies, "Riddle, dear, are these your uncles?"

"This is my daddy!" Riddle tugs on my sleeve and I pick her up to set her on my shoulders; Miss Rift frowns.

"Oh, well that's very nice," she states and Iggy hands me the pen; I sign my fake name on the paper and Miss Rift skims over it. "Nick? As in Nick Walker?" she shrills and grins brightly; I stare at her, confused.

I say wearily, "Uh, yeah?" and next thing I know her arms are wrapped around my neck over the desk.

"It's Lisa, remember?" she squeals in my ear and I wince until she finally lets me go with a wide grin. She's obviously forgotten that my daughter is standing right beside me watching this scene play out.

"Oh, hey," I half-smile a little and she grins again, "So can my daughter get a late pass or something?" Lisa's frown disappeared and I knew if Max was here she'd be smirking smugly at the redhead.

She nods and scribbles something on a small slip of paper before giving it to Riddle, who looks up at me. "Are you picking me up today?" she asks as I crouch down in front of her and wrap my arms around her.

"Yeah," I reply and she kisses my cheek, "Love you," I smile and brush some hair from in front of her eyes.

"Love you, too Daddy!" she giggles and skips out of the office and to her class; Lisa was glaring down at her desk.

"Well," Iggy clears his throat awkwardly, "we should be going, bye," and he rushes out of the office. His hand was locked around my wrist until we were in the parking lot and out of sight from Lisa. "Who are we going to run into next? Dylan?" he asks sarcastically as I start up the van.

"God, I hope not," I groan and pull out of the parking lot, starting towards the welcome place around this town. I had no idea there was one in every state until Max texted me the address of this one on the drive to Riddle's school. Iggy only starts to laugh.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Five**_

_#############_

"Morning Max!" Tess, my best friend and the receptionist of the building, grinned as I walked through the double doors. In her hand was a coffee from Starbucks and she was holding it out for me as soon as the doors opened.

I smiled at her, "Good morning, Tess, did I get any mail?" I walked up to her desk as she shuffles around under her desk. Her dark red hair was pulled into a tight ponytail so her dark brown eyes were in full view. I take the coffee from her hand and take a sip of it, relishing in the wonderful feeling of caffeine taking over my tired system.

"Yes, oh and your husband called, something about the receptionist of Riddle's school? He sounded kind of freaked out if you ask me," she looked at me, eyebrows raised. I shrugged and took another drag of the bittersweet coffee that was quickly disappearing from the cup.

"First of all he isn't my husband, we aren't even together anymore. And second I have no idea," I say and she hands me my mail before I break off and go over to one of the multiple elevators. The doors to one slide open and I step into the small area and press the button for the top floor.

Jerry was waiting for me as soon as I stepped off the elevator and started for my desk in front of his office. He followed me silently and watched as my expression turned to shock when I found my desk was now cleared off. A box of my things was sitting on the edge of the scratched surface and I started to panic. If I was being fired that would mean I couldn't pay my bills and Riddle might have to suffer more freezing nights and lukewarm food. But when I turned to look to at Jerry for an explanation he was just grinning from ear to ear.

"What is going on?" I ask incredulously as he grabs my box of stuff and starts leading me somewhere.

"You've been promoted, Max," he says and pushes open the door to an office that's been empty for years. "Congratulations, Max you start today, your first assignment is on your new desk," then he pushes me into the office and leaves for his office beside mine.

I scrunch my eyebrows together and start unloading everything back on my new desk then I collapse in my new chair. It was a heavenly black rolling chair with a massaging back and I fell in love with the thing. For a few seconds I studied a picture of Fang and I when we were fourteen and we were on that submarine. It was the one where I kissed him in front of everyone and Nudge somehow caught the antire moment, taking multiple shots on all angles. I sighed and went to work on my first case.

**NUDGE'S POV**

"I don't want to go," Angel groans and shakes my arm, which she was latched onto while we stand in the office of her new middle school. She's eleven now but she still had the whining abilities of a six year old; she glares at me as she hears my thoughts but I only smile.

I tell her, "I went through it, Ange. Now I have to work on College, which is a lot worse than this, trust me. So you're going to… oh look at him!" I squeal and she looks at me weird but looks at where I was pointing anyways. A boy maybe a year older than Angel stands there with his arms crossed as he waits for one of his parents to sign him in.

His dark green eyes roam over the room until they land on Angel and he smirks a little before holding up a hand in a slight wave. Angel flushes and smiles back at him; he runs a hand through his deep brown almost black hair. They continue to stare at each other as I fill out a form and get Angel an ID so she's allowed to go through her classes today. Tomorrow she would get her real ID and would be officially apart of the school instead of just a guest. Without looking at Angel I could tell she wasn't trying to read his mind; she's been cutting back a lot now.

"See you later, Angel," I say and pat her blonde curls with a grin before leaving the school and getting on the city bus. I head back to Max's house and start to clean the house; it looked as if it hadn't been cleaned for years. I couldn't wait until the flock came home.

**ANGEL'S POV**

His dark eyes watched me leave the office and start for my first class period; I was blushing terribly. I've never blushed for a guy before, not even Gazzy when he walked in on me changing once. But he's my brother so I didn't expect him to freak out even if he did run out of the room, screaming. Those eyes were now stuck in my mind and I wondered if all eleven-year-olds were supposed to feel this way around guys like that. I shook my head slightly and walked down the empty halls; all of the other students were already in their classrooms.

"Miss Ride," my new teacher, Miss Cress, looks at me as I enter the classroom and stand in front of everyone. They all stare me down and I shift uncomfortably in my new clothes that Nudge made me buy on the way to my middle school.

I nod a little, "Yeah, that's me," and she glowers then turns to the rest of the class.

"Students this is Angel Ride, she'll be joining our class and I want all of you to welcome her. Angel, would you like to tell us something about yourself?" she asks but doesn't smile and instead her face goes rigid. I listen in on the whispers rippling around the classroom.

"_She's hot," "Dude, I hope she's single," "Her hair color has to be fake," "Wow is it possible for a middle school student to get any hotter?" "I doubt it." _I whip back to only come face to face with my waiting teacher; I flush and keep my eyes off of my audience.

"No," I answer flatly and walk to an empty seat in the back of the classroom; I set down my books and sit down quietly. Miss Cress glares then goes back to writing simple math problems on the chalkboard at the head of the room.

I look down at my white skinny jeans, light blue long-sleeved top that showed my shoulders completely, and light blue high-tops. My white leather jacket was thrown over the back of my chair and my dark blue cross-body bag was limply on the floor with binders and other supplies inside. Max would've been proud that the only pink was on my toenails and that was covered. Suddenly the door swung open and the same boy from the office walked in, his hands deep in his pockets.

"Mr. Raven so glad you could join us," Miss Cress snaps through her teeth and the boy grins lazily at her.

"Yes, Miss Cress, and I'm thrilled that I made it before you started your amazing lesson," the boy says sarcastically. Miss Cress glowers and uses a yard stick on her desk to point at the open seat right next to mine. Of course I would be stuck with this gorgeous boy next to me for the last seven months of this bloody school year.

He looks at his desk then at me and a slow, steady smirk slides onto his perfect lips as he strides back to me. "Hey," he grins and I feel like my heart stops for a total of twenty beats until I remember he said something.

"H-hi," I stutter and look down as a pink blush runs over my cheeks and turns my face a dark shade of red. That smirk remains as he slams his stuff down and gracefully sits down while Miss Cress doesn't pay any attention and continues with a lesson no one is listening to.

A folded piece of paper lands on my desk and I unfold it to read whatever was on it; boyish handwriting met me. _'Sup? I'm Andrew._

I glance over at the boy, Andrew, before quickly scrawling out a reply. **Nothing much, I'm Angel. **I flick it back onto his desk and listen as he unfolds it then writes something back and tosses it on my desk. You get the point of all of this.

_That's your real name?_

**Yes, why?**

_Nothing, I've just never met someone with that name._

**Weird. I've never met an Andrew before now.**

I hear him chuckle under his breath as he reads this, probably thinking I was just kidding.

_I feel special._

**Oh, you are. Just in the wrong ways.**

_You're funny. I like funny._

**Cool, am I supposed to be flattered?**

_Yes, yes you are. Do you wanna sit with me at lunch today?_

My heart fluttered and I felt a smile coming on as I eagerly write my response.

**Sure, sounds like fun.**

_Awesome, what period do you have fourth?_

**Life Science with Mr. Bailey, you?**

_Same, I'll walk you._

**Mkay.**

I looked from the corner of my eye as he grins and folds the paper before shoving it into his pocket. When I shook my head my blonde curls fell, causing them to shield my face so I can look at him between the locks. He was grinning through the class period and I refused to let myself read his mind to see what he was thinking; it wouldn't feel right. When class let out I was disappointed when he didn't follow me to my social studies class. What was going on with me?

**GAZZY'S POV**

Ow!

Damn these stupid wires kept on shocking me!

I need to get my eyes off of the girl across the street and actually focus on what I was doing. Now that I'm fourteen I know girls are actually really cute around here especially this one. Her dark red hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, her bright green eyes were glinting with mischief, and she had the milkiest skin I'd ever seen. She was occasionally looking over at me and that's why I was getting shocked so much trying to put in this security system. Those amazing eyes would lock with mine and I was trying to get myself to go over there but I was nervous.

She once again looked up from the laptop she was taking apart on her lawn and for the first time she raised a hand and waved at me. I took my hand off of the ladder to wave at her just to lose my balance and go falling off the ladder. In the air, I force myself to turn so I would land on my stomach instead of my wings. I hit the ground dead-on and the air left my body as I tried to push myself back up but I just fell right back into the grass.

Smooth, I think bitterly, Gazzy very smooth.

The girl runs across the street from her yard and pushes into Max's yard through the white picket fence. "Oh, my God! Are you alright?!" she asks and drops down on her knees beside me; her green eyes wide and concerned.

"Yeah, just a little scratch," I murmured and forced myself to push up and sit in front of her; my head started to spin.

"A scratch? You call falling off a ladder a scratch?" she asks hysterically and I grab her face in my hands.

"Take a deep breath," I command and she does so, "now slowly breathe out through your nose." She does and then stares at me when I notice how close we are to each other, her lips just an inch or so away from mine.

Then she pulls back and starts to laugh, clutching her stomach while I just stare at her like she's gone mad. "Y-you f-fell off a l-ladder t-trying t-to wave at m-me!" she managed between her laughs and I roll my eyes humorlessly.

"Yeah, hilarious," I mutter and stand slowly; I brush off my shirt and jeans then go to replace the ladder. The girl instantly stops laughing and scrambles to her feet; she latches onto my arm in a surprisingly tough grip.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," she says quickly then turns to stand in front of me completely. She stuck out a hand, "I'm Lilly," she states and I shake her hand with a slight smile. Lilly seemed to be my age and I now noticed she had freckles scattered on her nose and cheek bones. She was beautiful.

"My real name's Zephyr but my friends call me Gazzy," I reply and she raises an eyebrow at me.

She asks, "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," I answer and she laughs again.

"Well, Gazzy, it was great meeting you but I really should get back to what I was doing. Will I see you at school tomorrow?" she pushes some loose red hair behind her ear and smiles at me. I had the incredible urge to push that hair back for her that I had to restrain myself from even trying.

I reply, "Maybe," and wink at her playfully before starting to climb the ladder again, "Bye, Lilly!" I call as she laughs, a ringing bell sound, and starts back towards her house with a skip to her step.

"Bye Gazzy!" she calls back, her voice light and I watch her gather her things before disappearing into her house. Man, I was losing my mind.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Six**_

_###############_

"Bye, Maxie!" Tess calls and I wave a hand at her tiredly before shoving through the doors and into the cold night.

I love the moon around this time of the year. It's full and sparkling with glinting stars surrounding it like a protector against the rest of the world. Wow, this many years away from the flock and I've turned into a poet. My eyes are torn away from the moon when the doors shut behind me with a small slam. With a sigh, I walk quickly to my car and throw open the driver's door. I throw my bag into my passenger seat and slide into my amazing jeep to start the heat on high. It was freezing around here and the heat only made my hands warm enough so I could drive.

On the way home I leave my radio on full blast just to drone out the world and its problems around me. All those years ago I finally took down Itex single-handedly and the flock took down the School. The Voice hadn't talked to me until that very short period of time when Riddle was sick. I guessed this meant I fulfilled my mission and I could just go on with the rest of my life. The thing is, the Voice did tell me that if we take down the School then they can't turn on our expiration dates so we can die of old age like most normal people.

The house is dark when I pull into the driveway, grab my bag, and slide out of my jeep still staring up at my home. Every house on the block is dark since it is around ten now; I wasn't let out until I read my whole file (which was about 89 pages) and then gave a summary to Jerry. I frowned and walked up to the front door while flipping through the keys on the chain around my neck. The bright green key fit into the lock and I twisted it, unlocking the door, before clipping my key necklace back around my neck.

"I'm home!" I call as I step through the doorway and drop my bag on the table beside the door along with my car keys. "Guys? Where are you? Hello?!" No one replies so I stalk into the kitchen, ready to scold the flock for trying to scare me. But no one's there.

My frown deepens and I make my way upstairs and into Riddle's bedroom, but again it's just empty. With a huff, I decide to just make dinner and not jump to conclusions like I used to. Stress led to a very angry Max and if they happened to show up I knew I would just explode. And exploding would make Riddle cry, Fang pissed because I made our daughter cry, and so on. I walk calmly back downstairs and I flip on lights as I go including the three in our ginormous kitchen. After a very descriptive studying of my fridge I decide on some homemade sloppy-joes on garlic bread. Don't knock it till you try it.

I was just stirring the meat when the front door slams open and someone that sounds a lot like Iggy shouts, "Hurry before Max gets home!" For a second I wondered if he was blind again and couldn't tell that the lights that were currently off were now flicked on.

"Uh, too late," another voice says from the kitchen doorway and I look up to see Fang, his arms loaded with bags of groceries. See, I told you if I stayed calm I wouldn't blow up so I take a few deep breaths and smile tightly at him.

"Thank you for running to the store for me, boys, now I need you to put them all away," I say. Iggy stops dead in the doorway and stares at me, mouth wide open as I start dicing onions.

He exclaims, "What?! We had to spend hours at the store just to find all this crap and then another thirty at the checkout line! That's no fair!" After a moment I set grip my dicing knife tightly in my hand and turn on him, the knife poised outwards to point at him.

"Do you want me to start yelling and asking you where the hell you've been? No? Good, you better get started then," I threaten and Fang smirks before setting down his bags and coming over to me. I was just about to start dicing garlic when he wraps his arms around my waist from behind.

"Good to have you back, Maxie," he murmurs then pulls away and starts to unload the food where it all goes. I stand, shocked, with my knife hovering over the garlic for a few seconds until I hear a happy, bright voice.

I just have time to drop the knife before Riddle crashes into my legs and we go tumbling over. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Guess what? Today Carly was, like, eating and this boy goes over to her and asks for a crayon, right? Well she was, like, 'NO' so he started to cry so I gave him my crayon and now we're best friends! Isn't that fantabulous!?" she shouts and I laugh then wrap my arms around her and stumble to get back on my feet.

"That's great, baby," I kiss her forehead and sit her on the counter as I continue my chopping. "What's his name?" I ask and she grins.

"His name is Sam!" she says excitedly and I hear Fang slam the freezer door shut at the name. Riddle barely glances at him as she continues, "He had blonde curly hair and these really pretty blue eyes. He told me I was pretty!" Riddle exclaims and bounces where she was sitting; I glance over at Fang and see his jaw was clenched as he digs through another bag.

I smile and slide the diced onions and garlic into the ready brown meat, "That's great, sweetheart. Maybe him and his family can come over sometime, huh?" I ask and she squeals then runs off. Angel practically floats into the kitchen with a slip of paper clutched to her chest; I stare for a second. "So, Angel, did you find your Fang?" I ask without meaning to but I can see Fang grinning behind the pantry door.

"Huh?" Angel asks, confused then she thinks about it and smiles, "Yeah, his name is Andrew and he's really sweet." I wrinkle up my nose and Angel, seeing this action, quickly puts in, "But in that bad-boy kind of fashion. You know, kind of like how Fang was when he was twelve," she smiles when I smile.

Then my expression goes blank, "Why were you so late getting in?" Angel flushes and shuffles her feet around.

"Well, uh, Andrew took me to a diner with a few of his friends and we just lost track of time, I guess." She replies guiltily and I get ready to give her my punishment until I think better of it and a slow, easy smile spread over my lips.

I say, "Since Fang has always played the Daddy role I believe he should be the one to talk to you about this." Fang jerks up so fast his head was just an inch from hitting a shelf and he stares at me, bewildered. "Go on, punish your daughter," I wink at him and Angel glumly follows him out the kitchen door. She knew his punishment will be worse than mine, mostly because she was out with a boy at night when she was supposed to be home doing her homework.

After about two minutes I dump the homemade tomato sauce into the meat and I stir it into the rest of the dish. I let it settle in the pan then I leave the kitchen and go to my bedroom to get out of these terrible clothes. I leave the bedroom door cracked as I slide out of my pencil skirt and pull on some long plain pajama bottoms that used to be Fang's. The strings had to be tied tightly, but they were fine so I slip on a dark purple spaghetti strap tank. I glance in the mirror and then tie my hair up in a tight ponytail around the top of my head.

"You really need to start locking this door," Fang strides into the room with a cocky smirk; I glance back at the wide-open bedroom door. "It's not just you and Riddle anymore," he tells me while I blush furiously when I realize what he meant. He saw me changing and saw my lacy black bra and underwear, which covered more than the bikini Nudge made me wear once.

I sighed and faced him with my hands on my hips, "Face it, you enjoyed the show," and I wink before walking out of the bedroom and back to the kitchen. Fang stared after me, dumbstruck; a smirk played on my lips as I stirred the meat once more and got out the hamburger buns. Before I could call the flock for dinner a pair of familiar olive-toned arms wrapped around my waist; I'd forgotten how much muscle he'd gained over the past couple of years.

"Yes," a deep, sexy voice whispered in my ear, "I did enjoy the show," then he broke away and strode out of the kitchen. I gaped at the counter, trying to recollect my thoughts and what I was planning on doing before that.

Oh, right, dinner. "Come and get it!" I yell and multiple pairs of feet trudge down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Wow," Gazzy breathes when he sees all of the food including the salad and garlic bread spread over my table. "Maybe Max can cook," he decided and sat down near the head of the table, ready to dive at the food.

I shrugged and replied, "Not as good as Iggy, but it's edible and that's all I really care about." Fang picked up Riddle and set her in her booster seat; she grinned up at him and waited for one of us to give her food.

"Mommy's homemade sloppy sandwiches are the best!" Riddle squealed and I took a seat on her right; Fang sat down next to me. Everyone eventually took a seat and we started to fill up our plates of the edible food.

One by one they took a bite out of their sandwich after watching me take a bite of mine, of course. Then all of the excited chatter started, "Guys!" I call and they stop talking to look at me, question lingering on their faces. "I was thinking I could get an addition added to the back of my house so we have more room. Or all of you could move in a few blocks away," I tell them the plan I was thinking about earlier at work and they all look at each other, contemplating.

"I'm not going anywhere," Fang decides and links our hands under the table; I smile.

"Me either," the flock chimes in together and we all link hands, even Riddle who seemed ecstatic.

The rest of dinner went by shortly until it was way past Riddle's bedtime and I let Fang help me get her down. We both kissed her cheeks at the same time then left to go to my… our bedroom for the night. It wasn't until on the way to my room did I notice Gazzy was acting really strange lately. I tell Fang I would meet him in the room and he nods then disappears into our bedroom. Instead, I turn and go up the stairs and into the room Gazzy was currently sharing with Iggy. He was staring out the window across the street where Tess lives with her daughter, Lilly, and her husband, Blake.

"Gaz? Everything okay, buddy?" I sit on the window seat beside him and run my hand through his curls. He doesn't utter a word; I sigh and try again, "You can tell me anything, you know that right?"

He finally nods, "Yeah, I just don't know what's going on with me."

I frown, "What do you mean?"

"Well this girl was on her lawn today messing with a laptop while I was putting up the security system you wanted. We talked and I felt all jittery and nervous and I started to sweat and now I can't get her out of my head." He admits and I wrap an arm around his shoulders, tugging him into my side so I can rest my chin on the top of his head.

"Sounds to me you're acting the say way I did around Fang when I realized I liked him more than a friend. Are we talking about Lilly?" I ask and look at him with two raised eyebrows; he flushes.

"You know her?"

"She's my friends' daughter; she comes over a lot to babysit Riddle. Maybe you could stay here with her next time, see how things go," I suggest and he grins at me.

"Really?"

"Yeah, now go to sleep." I go to leave but he grabs my wrist and I look down at him.

"Can you, uh, come sign me into the high-school tomorrow? I want to try and be normal, too," he looks down again.

"Sure thing, Gazzy," I ruffle his hair and kiss his forehead like I used to, "Love you, buddy," I smile slightly.

"Love you, too, and thanks, Max, for everything," he grins at me and I reply by nodding and shutting his door behind me.

I walk back downstairs and into my bedroom where Fang was in his boxers on his side of the bed, typing on his laptop. A smile graces my lips as I sit down beside him and rest my head on his sturdy shoulder. "What was that call about?" I ask quietly as he rubs my back and shuts down his computer.

"Well I had to sign in Riddle since she was late," he starts but then he trails off slowly.

"And?"

"Remember when we had to go to high-school for Anne? Yeah, well Lisa is the secretary for Riddle's school." He says quickly and my blood runs ice cold. Of course. Of FREAKING course!


	7. Chapter 7

_**Wishing**_

_**Gazzy**_

_**Seven**_

Lilly. Lilly. She's all I can possibly think about while I sit on the grass in Max's front yard, waiting for Lilly. I talked to her earlier when she came to drop of a toy Riddle left at her house and she saw me getting ready for school. When I walked past the door though, I only had a white cotton towel wrapped around my waist. She flushed and told me she'd walk with me to the school and then I watched her run out of the house, red hair trailing behind her. A ghost of a smile traces my lips and I stand from the grass to use Max's glossy mirror once more to make sure I looked okay.

After a lot of help from Iggy and Fang we decided on a dark blue, black, light blue, white, and gray regular plaid long-sleeved button-up shirt with the sleeves folded up to the elbows. I had on a new pair of faded jeans and a new pair of black combat boots, which Max approved of completely. It was normal human attire and Nudge said I looked pretty 'hawt' or something like that. Lilly finally stepped out of her house wearing a plain dark red long-sleeved shirt, dark wash skinny jeans, and knee-high furry black boots.

"Gazzy!" Lilly grins and rushes over to me, grinning and my heart skips a few beats when I see her so close. "I'm so glad you're coming with me today," she says honestly and I grin back at her, unable to stop myself.

I reply, "Me too," and she pulls me by the hand along the sidewalk towards the high school a few blocks away. It was freezing this morning and Lilly was shivering and holding her arms, trying to keep warm. So I look down at my black leather jacket in my hand before putting it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she murmurs and blushes; she slides her arms through the sleeves and starts to walk normally. "So where'd you move from?"

I furrow my eyebrows, suspicious, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Max has been alone for the past two years except for Riddle, so how are you related to Max? Where'd you move from with the rest of your family? Is it true that dark-haired guy is Riddle's dad?" She was asking questions at a ridiculous speed and I placed my hand over her mouth to get her to stop.

"I'm Max's adopted younger brother, I moved from Colorado, and yes that is Riddle's dad." I answer; living with Nudge for my whole life gives me some benefits towards people that liked to talk. Lilly blushes under my hand and I remove it then I let it hang by my side limply.

She nods, "That's cool," her voice takes on the same tone Nudge gets when she wants to ask more questions.

"You get three more questions, go," I say and she looks at me, eyes wide before rattling off three questions.

"How old are you? What's your favorite color? What do you know about those winged kids that saved the world?" she asks quickly, her face flushing red at the last question. I was bewildered that she knew about us and believed we were real, most people just say the world saved itself.

I say slowly and carefully, "Uh, I'm fourteen, my favorite color is red, and I know everything about those kids." She grins but it fades when she realizes we were in front of the high-school; we're both freshmen.

"Well, I have a babysitting job for Max in a week, will you be there?" she asks before we break off from each other.

A grin splits across my face, all my nervousness thrown out the window, "Yeah, you can count on it." I watched her disappear into the freshmen building while I go into the separate building for the main office. Time to learn things I already know.

**MAX'S POV**

"Hey, Max! Yeah I have Gazzy right here!" a bright, perky JJ greets me over the phone and I can't help but smile a little. I wasn't feeling very well today so I was registering Gazzy over the phone while he waited there with her. Something told me Lilly got comfy this morning with Gazzy and I couldn't wait to plan a wedding; when they're older, of course.

So this was my morning with Riddle clutching onto my leg, begging for her Barbie's back after I took them when she threw them at her window. She only did this because she wanted to try and fly on her own, which would've made her drop like a stone. Fang was at his new job working at some radio station downtown and he wouldn't be home until around three. Iggy was off at his new job as a cook in a popular diner, Nudge took Ella shopping, Angel and Gazzy are at school, and I had no idea where Mom and Jeb went.

"Okay well just let him know that Fang will most likely be picking him up after school today." I tell JJ and she replies with a perky 'OKAY' before I hung up and slammed the phone back down. "Come on, I'm driving you to school," I swing her up on my hip and walk her outside to my jeep.

When I get back to the house I have no idea what to do so I go back to the bedroom I share with Fang. I make the bed on both sides and gather Fang's dirty laundry and my own into one basket then walk it into the basement. The next two hours consists of me doing laundry, making beds, fixing pictures, and other mother-like chores. By the time I finished the dishes were done, laundry was done and folded, beds were made, and the floors were sparkling. So I decided to do the one thing I've put off ever since I had Riddle; I needed a haircut and some new clothes.

I snatched my keys off of the table beside the door and leave the house, locking the door behind me. My jeep is already heated from taking Riddle to school, which was a huge bonus at this point. For the next five minutes I drive until I'm in front of the largest mall around this place. I slide out of my jeep and head inside, going straight for the spa so they could decide what to do with me. We all know I'm terrible with fashion so I'd just let them do what they think is best. Besides, I have the Max Ride credit card that I've refused to use, until now that is.

"Welcome!" a lady with bright pink hair, glowing yellow cat eyes, and dark skin exclaims when I walk through the door. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Maximum Ride," I answer and look around at all of the women looking as if they were having the time of their lives.

"Hey, JJ told me about you!" she grins as I walk closer and smile slightly back at her without meaning to. "You're the single mother, correct?" she asks and I rest my crossed arms on the countertop of her granite desk.

"Yeah, that's me," I reply and she takes hold of my arm.

"Great, we have a special treatment for single mothers, and you want a makeover, correct?"

I hesitate but decide that this is exactly what I needed to try and get Fang back before Lisa crawls her way back into our lives. "Yeah," I answer.

Before I can register it, three girls are literally dragging me into an empty back room filled with all types of things. First they make me strip and slide into a mud bath, which looks absolutely disgusting but I reluctantly do it anyways. They know what's best, after all. Then I'm strapped down on a table to JJ's request when she was talking to the lady about me. A searing pain runs up my body as they yank something off of my legs, taking the hair with it. I bite down on the white rag they stuffed in my mouth to keep my screams mute; that hurt like a mother.

This continues on almost every part of my bare body before I'm shoved into a shower with lukewarm water. I wash my body but leave my hair in the cap they gave me like they instructed. When I step out they don't even say anything before I'm pushed into one of those pedicure chairs. Then my fingernails were done, then they scrubbed at my hair with some special soap, and finally they sat me down in one of those spinning chairs in front of a mirror. Next thing I know they spin me around so I can't see myself and go to discussing my hair.

A green-haired lady turns and starts yanking a brush through my hair and yellow-haired lady starts snipping off my split ends. This goes on for what seems to be an hour as they claw and dry and then one of them puts a single streak through my new bangs. The chair spins around and I'm facing the mirror staring at a girl with wavy blonde hair reaching to her waist perfectly. She had side bangs that cover a part of her left eye and through the bangs was one silver streak.

"No time to gape! We must now pick out a wardrobe and makeup for you!" a lady with neon blue hair snaps. I'm quickly ushered into a room filled to the brim with clothes and accessories; they start piling it in my arms.

For once I don't try to argue and instead I go with the flow like the voice once told me to do; it ended up working… mostly. I'm shoved into a changing room with an outfit and I change from the white robe and into the entire outfit. The white spaghetti- strap tank-top has fashionable rips across the stomach so you could see the skin behind them, but for once I didn't mind now that my stomach was smooth and flat. I has on black skinny jeans, a black leather jacket, white knee-high heeled boots with a furry inside, and a dark blue fedora to sit on my head.

I was pulled out again and they started to pluck my eyebrows and smear eyeshadow on my top eyelids. This continued with black eyeliner, and some black mascara but I still stayed quiet and continued to make myself just to let them do this. When it's finally done they place me in front of a mirror and squeal as I stare at the beautiful young woman staring back at me in the mirror. I looked sixteen again except not as tired and worn out from dealing with a newborn baby.

"Thank you, I love it," I tell them truthfully and all of them squeal before dragging me back in the closet room.

By the time I finally leave, I have about two hundred bags of clothes, makeup, and accessories in my jeep. I wave bye and thank the women before leaving the mall and heading back to my house, hoping I would make it there before Fang. Of course luck wasn't on my side as Fang and Iggy were in the driveway washing a new black mustang. I get out of my car and slide on a pair of my new black sunglasses; they look up when I slam the door to my jeep shut.

My eyes focused on Fang's wet eight-pack and I felt like I was about to drool before I remembered my appearance. I managed to discretely unzip my jacket to show the rips and my stomach just to tease him back. It was freezing cold today like every other day and he was just trying to get to me by doing this. I glare at him behind my sunglasses, but he only continues to stare, mouth slightly agape at me and I smirk smugly.

"Max?" Iggy asks incredulously and I smile innocently then I pull open my trunk and slide bags onto my arms.

This thing was going to be fun; I wanted Fang so bad that it hurt my stomach just to look at him and know I can't wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him whenever I like. And I can't make love to him anytime I want to; yes I do want to do that again and it was the best night of my life. Knowing I couldn't cuddle up to him on the couch during movies with the rest of the flock around. And just knowing he could get with any other girl in the world and not have to worry about cheating on me or feeling bad about it afterwards. I shake the thoughts from my mind hurriedly.

"Are you going to continue to stare, or are you going to actually come help me with my bags?" I ask Fang as I pass and give him a wink even though he can't see it behind my sunglasses. He grabs the rest of the bags and follows me into the house then back to our bedroom where I start unpacking the stuff.

He asks, "Where did you go?"

"The spa," I answer, "those things can be really relaxing for a mom, you know? Oh, and did you pick up Gazzy like I asked you to?"

"Yeah, he went over to the girl's house across the street. I think he said something about finishing homework," Fang shrugs and I step closer to him. I knew he wasn't about to make the first move so I decided that I would have to if I wanted to get together with him again.

I start, "So Lilly, the girl across the street, is coming to babysit Riddle this Friday and I wanted to know if you want to go out and do something. Just the two of us maybe go out to a dinner, a movie, and maybe some ice-cream…" I trail off at his amused expression.

"Actually, I was about to ask you out, but you just beat me to the punch so I guess we could," he replies and shrugs. I slip my sunglasses onto my dresser and finish hanging up my last new shirt and shutting my walk-in closet door.

He starts to leave but I call quickly, "Oh, Fang, wait!" he turns around and I motion him over to me. "I hated you living with those suitcases in the corner so your stuff is all in the first two drawers in the darkest dresser, okay?" I told him and pointed at the darkest one of my dressers in the back corner.

"Okay," he says and starts to back away and then smiles and adds, "I guess I can finally say that I'm at home." And he disappears, literally with that stupid ability of his.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Wishing**_

_**Angel**_

_**Eight**_

* * *

My fingers tapped impatiently on my desk as I waited for the bell to ring so I could finally see Andrew in the lunchroom. The days seem to drag on especially in the classes I didn't have with him and I felt all tingly every time his skin made contact with my own. I was so tempted to read his mind and see what he thought of me, but it seems like it would be wrong if I did. Miss Berks was droning on and on at the head of the classroom while I jumped in her thoughts to all of the questions she was writing on the board. I only jumped in teachers' heads when I was busy thinking Andrew or someone else and I couldn't concentrate.

"Miss Ride, what did you get for number twelve?" Miss Berks snaps impatiently when I move onto tapping the eraser of my pencil on the desk. I blush under everyone's excruciating looks and I look down at my paper realized I hadn't written anything down. For a split second I reach into Miss BErks' mind and there was the correct answer, clear as day.

"Eighty-seven," I say dismissively and she nods then moves on to torture someone else in the classroom. When the bell finally does ring I was the first one out of the classroom and down the hallway on my way to the lunchroom.

As soon as I push open the lunchroom doors thoughts slam into my mind and I rub at my temples trying to block all of them out. Its been harder to block out thoughts after I started thinking about Andrew a lot more than I should be. My wings itched under my blue jean jacket and I wanted so bad to take a fly to clear my head, but more whispers about me was the last thing I needed. Sure most of the kids here knew about the amazing bird kids that saved the world but most of the also believed it was just a few stunt people in costumes. My blue eyes scoped the lunchroom until I spotted Andrew sitting at the popular table; I frowned deeply.

Casey, my best friend other than Nudge, stepped up to my side where her vision was also locked on a chatting Andrew. "Sad, isn't it? Andrew started dating Penelope yesterday and now he's sitting with her idiot crowd," she wrinkles up her nose.

"He's dating that girl that wears the, like, seven inch long skirts?" I ask, astonished he would ever stood so low. Sure, Max told me about how most boys my age thought about kissing girls a lot but I didn't think Andrew was this bad to go out with a girl that would kiss a cute guy if he just asked or looked like he was going to kiss her anyways.

Sadly, Casey nods, "Him or us, Angel? I hate to make you choose but it's the popular crowd or us and it always has been." She walks towards our usual table in the middle of the room; I sit down beside Casey in the end. Braden, another friend of mine, smiles brightly at me and he nudges my leg under the table with his sneaker; he was practically in love with Casey and she liked him too but they were both too stubborn to admit it.

When lunch ends I walk slowly to my gym class feeling oddly drained of any earlier energy that I had. "Angel, come on!" a cheerleader friend of mine, Mandy, smiles brightly when I walk into the gym and she calls to me. I smile and join her and the other two cheerleaders on the team that aren't stuck-up and, or snobby.

"Hey," I say with fake cheeriness as we walk into the locker rooms and go to our lockers that just happened to be next to each other. "So I talked to my older sister and her, uh, boyfriend I guess, and they said I could come to your party tomorrow night." The girls squeal as I share my news and Mandy starts to explain how afterwards only the awesome girls will stay the night for the slumber party.

Brittany asks from beside me, "How come you stuttered when you talked about our sister's boyfriend?" These group of girls knew absolutely everything about the flock so I wasn't afraid to let my wings out around them anymore. They figured it out on the first day of school when I went to change in one of the locker room showers.

"Well you know about the flock, and how Max is the leader well I say Max is my older sister since I still don't know who my parents are," I start explaining. "Fang and Max have had some complications through their relationship so they aren't sure what they are right now."

I finish and the girls nod in understanding while I shed my top and tank top then pull on my dark pink and black jersey over the black sports bra Max and Nudge took my shopping for. They said something about me being an early-bloomer and how I already needs stuff like this for gym and stuff. My wings get all scrunched up beneath the material of the sports bra but I put up with it anyways under Max's orders if I wanted to stay in school. We leave the locker room in a group after I pull on the black and dark pink basketball shorts Fang made sure I got instead of the black spandex shorts. Coach Turner was talking with his hands moving a lot while explained we were going to play capture the flag today.

This might seem bad, but I needed serious practice about my controlling ability so maybe I could practice on my classmates. As long as no one notices then I don't see what the problem could be; I nod internally to tell myself it would be alright. Andrew steps out of the locker room a few seconds later, shoving and messing with his new group of popular friends. He locks eyes with me for a few short seconds before he smiles slightly then turns back to his friends. Mandy places a hand on my shoulder, knowing how much I liked Andrew and how much it hurt for him to ignore me and his other friends so much.

"Okay, Angel and Mandy you're the team captains now pick your teams!" Coach Turner claps his hands together. I shake hands with Mandy and we giggle together before starting to pick out our team members. Mandy won the coin flip just like I predicted and she immediately picked Andrew so I couldn't. We kept going until I had a few football players, geeks, goths, and one cheerleader on my team; Brittany just happened to be that cheerleader.

I put my hands together and point to two of my football players, "Braden and Chase you're going to guard." They salute and I smile then turn to the geeks and the goths, "You guys are going to distract since you're the most agile and speedy in this group. Brittany and I will try to actually get the flag while everyone's busy with our blockade, okay?"

Everyone nods and chatters excitedly, even the goths, and we all took a green jersey from Coach turner. I stuffed mine in the waistband of my shorts on my waist and got ready by standing next to Braden and out flag that was hanging out the top of a large orange cone. The whistle blew and I held Brittany back from charging and I commanded everyone to stay put while the other team charged. They slowed their paces when they saw we weren't reacting then I whistled through my teeth and our distractors got to their jobs. Four of the other team were taken to our jail, which was just a blue mat on the ground by our cone.

I took Brittany's arm before she could run into the mass of students, "Stick to the sidelines and spin on your heel every time someone tries to get you." She nods and I take to the left while she takes to the right; no one pays attention while we weave on the sidelines to get to the opposite teams cone.

No one noticed even when we were just inches away from the cone and it's flag; I was just running at a human's pace which is like walking for me and the flock. Until Andrew and Mandy spun out of nowhere and ended up in front of the cone and us; I pulled Brittany back a little bit. "Young grasshopper, I taught you well," I say to Mandy and she grins then does a bow to where I'm able to grab her jersey from her back pocket.

"I'll take her," Brittany grins while Mandy glares at me and they weave through the crowd to get our jail on the other side of the gym. Now my eyes lock with Andrew's again; his grin was evident as he watched me rather closely.

He remarks, "You are rather talented at this," and my mind flashes back to us being on the run. Back then I had to run from Erasers and fight for my life, now I was crushing on a human guy that was way too confusing for my liking. And I was playing some amature game of Capture the Flag with a bunch of regular humans; I felt out of place here but still welcomed in a way.

"You could say that," I reply and reach for his flag, but he blocks it and I snap my hand back again. "Face it, I'm going to win, so just back off," I glower at him but he just grins evilly and goes to snatch my jersey. I just have time to dodge and spin to the side when he tackles me to the ground and I'm trapped under his body.

I was watching him closely, trying to make out what he was feeling about this close proximity at the moment without looking in his mind. That's when he held a dark green jersey up in front of my eyes; I jumped up and glared daggers at him. "I win," he murmurs in my ear when the bell rings for the early birds and coach tells us to head to the showers. I tear my eyes from his and a blush takes over my cheeks; I leave him standing there to head for the locker rooms trying not to sway on my feet. It wasn't until I was at my locker did I realize I hadn't used my ability at all; I frowned slightly and wondered if I was going soft like Max always claimed she was. This would be a long several months.

* * *

*****GAZZY'S POV*****

"You're telling me that you really are Gazzy from the Flock?" Lilly asks me, stunned on the way home from my eighth day in regular people school. I chuckle and throw my arm over her shoulder like always; it was the same question everyday but I didn't care. She could say my name as much as she wanted and I bet I'd never get tired of it.

I reply anyways, "Yes Lilly, I am that Gazzy," I laugh and she giggles a little, blushing slightly. Girls do this all the time when I walk past or join in randomly during their conversations; I didn't get why girls blushed. "Lils?" I ask uneasily; she looks over at me with a bright smile.

"Yeah, Gaz?" she asks, walking closer so she was under my arm completely with her head resting on my shoulder. Her kiwi shampoo overwhelmed my senses while her red curls fell freely and bounced slightly as we walked.

Two days ago Max forced Fang to take me and Iggy shopping for some guy bonding or something like that. We got all of this stuff Fang claimed we needed and I was so glad I started showering every morning instead of once every week. Max forces me to wear deodorant, which I'm now also grateful for, and Iggy slaps some cologne on me before I leave the house. No matter what I do during the day I somehow always smell good, at least that's what Lilly tells me and it's an odd feeling. The feeling of actually being clean is so foreign to me, and every time Lilly comes over she would always cuddle into my side; I liked the feeling, a lot.

"This is a weird question, but I've been on the run for most of my life so bear with me here," I start and she nods, still having her head on my shoulder. "Why do girls blush so much around me and other guys?" I ask and she immediately blushes again, casting her sparkling eyes downwards slightly.

She answers slowly, "Well usually it's because we're embarrassed. It could be from something we said or something a guy said to us; most of the time it's from something we've done in front of someone we like."

I couldn't help myself when I blurted out, "So you like me?" and she blushes harder but nods then she hides her face with her hair. "Don't be embarrassed," I murmur into her hair like I've seen Fang do to Max from time to time. I take a deep breath then ask the one thing I've been preparing for with Max for the past five days, "Will you go out with me?"

We were in front of Lilly's house so we stop and she pick her head up and off of my shoulder to look at me. Her smile was literally making the day seem brighter, "Of course!" she hugs me for a few seconds. I wrap my arms around her and pull her closer; she pulls away, "I have to get inside before my dad looks out and sees us. Text me though, okay?" she asks and blinks her dazzling eyes at me.

"Alright and we'll make plans for maybe a movie," I ask uncertainly and she nods her head, smiling again. It seems like she never stops smiling to me and I like seeing her look so happy especially when she's around me.

"Talk to you later, Gaz," Lilly pecks my cheek, her warm lips making my skin tingle at her touch. Then she turns and walks up her pathway and into her house; I grin and make my way over to my house.

****When I open the door someone crashes into me.


	9. Chapter 9

**Wishing**

**Max**

**Nine**

"Come on," Fang says slipping his warm fingers under my shirt so they can circle my belly button and leave a fire trail in their place. "How many times did you check out a guy after we split?" he urges for the hundredth time and I roll my eyes.

You people probably have no idea what's going so allow me to inform you of what has been happening for the past half hour. Fang and I have asked each other stupid questions just to clear away our boredom and curiosity. My head is currently sitting in his lap and one of his hands keeps slipping discretely under my tank-top. The other hand is combing through my hair and twirling it around his fingers before moving onto another strand. So we aren't a complete couple but our date had gotten us a lot closer to starting that relationship again.

I finally mumble the number under my breath and he raises an eyebrow down at me, "In my defense all of them had black hair." He chuckles and pushes me off his lap; I roll to the floor with a thump and I glare up at him icily; Nudge decides to run into the room.

"It's finally happened, Max! Come on! Hurry, hurry, hurry! What are you two doing? No, wait! Don't tell me! We have to get to the window! Hurry before it ends!" she screeches and practically drags me to the window of the living room. Across the street there was Gazzy talking to Lilly, who had a really big smile on her young face; Nudge and I share a look. Then Lilly kisses Gazzy's cheek before turning and walking into her house, leaving a stupefied Gazzy behind.

Fang watches us, "Do I want to know what all of this is about?" he questions but we barely glance at him. For the past week we've been waiting for Gazzy to finally give in and ask Lilly out when she gives him the chance. He chose the day closest to the day I bet on and now Nudge owes me fifty dollars and she's my personal servant for a day.

"Gazzy finally asked Lilly out and I am now fifty bucks richer. Hand it over," I hold out my hand while Nudge grumpily takes her wallet out of her purse. I watch Nudge count out five ten dollar bills and then she slaps them down into my palm. Just double-checking, I count the fifty bucks and then happily shove the bills into my gray skinny jeans' pocket.

Nudge pushes her shoulder playfully against mine, "Everyone always beats me in bets, ugh! Iggy and I bet on when you two would start going out and he won by, like, two days. Then we bet on the time you guys would do the deed and he won again. And then I bet with Angel when you two would get together again now that we're here and she's winning. Gazzy and I bet on when Angel would find her first boy and Gazzy won even though he isn't happy about it. Fang and I bet on when Iggy would ask out Ella and I am totally losing, which is so stupid because she doesn't even like him like someone could! I hate betting with people but it's so addictive! This is so unfair!" she exclaims grumpily.

"You bet on when Iggy would ask out Ella?" I look between the two of them then brush it off and almost bounce in place. "Gazzy got a girlfriend!" I practically squeal and Maximum Ride does not squeal under normal conditions.

"And this is a big deal?" Fang trails off and we both look at him as if he was the most idiotic bird kid on the face of the earth. Nudge and I share a look and glance back out through the window to see Gazzy making his way back to the house; our eyes widen considerably.

At the exact same time Nudge and I scream, "YES!" and we push and pull each other to get to the front door. It slowly opens and I crash into Gazzy with Nudge not far behind; we pin him to the floor and demand a full repeat of what he did to ask her out.

He looks at us as if we weren't sane, "First of all why the heck were you spying on us? And second do I want to know why you had to tackle me just to know how I asked out the girl across the street?"

"Nudge dragged me!" I yelled and stood up from a flushed Nudge and a quisitive Gazzy to walk back to Fang. Hurriedly Nudge tried to explain how she saw Gazzy and Lilly talking on the sidewalk when she was hanging up a poster in the room that she's currently occupying. "I want to hear about all of it later!" I shout over my shoulder before grabbing Fang's hand and tugging him to the front door.

He asks, "Where are we going now?" when I snatch up the keys to my car and start for my jeep in the driveway. Today I was clad in my gray skinny jeans, black ankle boots, shoulder-exposing black top, gray-white leather jacket, and the ring Fang gave me back when we were fourteen. He was in his usual black long-sleeved v-neck shirt that shows off his abs, dark wash jeans, and black combat boots with matching black leather jacket.

"To pick up Riddle and Angel, duh," I say like it's the most obvious thing in the world. He seems to start laughing mentally when he smirks and I raise an eyebrow at him, "What's so funny Fang?"

He smoothly slides into the driver's seat of my car and snatches the keys from my hand before I realize it. "It's just that you get so eager with everyone else's relationships but when I want to talk about our's you just brush it off." His eyes lock onto me as I slide into the passenger seat and refuse to meet his eyes anymore. "Just like your doing right now," he sighs as if I'm helpless but I still don't say anything.

We arrive at Riddle's school and I unbuckle my seatbelt with a short sigh, "Just stay in the car, Fang. If Lisa says one thing about us if she sees us together then I'm going to crack, so just try and refrain yourself." He smirks and gives a short chuckle; I swing out of the jeep and stride through the front doors of the small school. Sure enough now that I look closer I can see the fourteen-year-old Lisa from four years ago sitting behind that desk. "Lisa, I heard you were flirting with my boyfriend," I frown when the redhead practically growls at me.

"Max, seems that the rumors are true around here. Riddle's father has magically shown up and her mother is a total slut. Getting pregnant at fourteen, Maxie? Shame on you," she snarls and I narrow my eyes at her, walking up to the front desk.

I angrily narrow my eyes at her while I reply, "Look you little witch, I will not have you ruin my little family. Whatever you think you had with Nick is over now, in fact I doubt it ever began. It was a simple little crush that Nick got over in a snap and you were left wondering why the hell you weren't good enough. The answer is me; I was always the one he loved and you were just a roadblock slapped down in front of me." Her eyes have widened throughout my little speech and I felt obliged to smirk smugly at her reaction.

Lisa hesitantly calls Riddle down to the office for an early dismissal while I occasionally glance through the window at Fang. He's obviously trying to see into the school without being too obvious but I could tell he was stressing about leaving us in a room together. It was his fault for kissing the bimbo in the first place, after all; I lean against the counter. Three minutes and twenty-two seconds later, Riddle bounds into the room with a wide smile on her face. Her black hair is pulled up into a new ponytail and I look her over, approving of how Fang dressed her. Less than a half second later, Riddle was hugging me around the knees with a giant smile.

"Hey, Hun, how was your day?" I question as I pick her up and settle her on my hip. I brush some loose hair from in front of her eyes while she nibbles on her bottom lip. She opens her mouth to reply then catches a glimpse over my shoulder and her smile seems to grow.

"Is that Daddy?!" she questions excitedly and I laugh but nod. Then I turn and sign the last paper saying Riddle was going home with one of her guardians. I walk her outside and Fang looks at us before unbuckling his seat belt and sliding out of the jeep. "Daddy!" Riddle squeals and Fang smiles, coming closer and taking her from me while I rummage through my purse for my cell phone.

He looks at me while I punch in the familiar number, "Who are you calling?" he questions and raises his eyebrow slightly. I put a finger to my lips and start towards the car, holding the phone to my ear as I walked and he followed. Then I hear Fang telling Riddle, "I was thinking Mac & Cheese for dinner, what do you think?"

"Yes!" Riddle exclaims while my phone goes to voicemail. My mom's voice comes from the automatic answering machine but I just hang up. It seems weird that my mom comes here with Ella and everyone else and yet we haven't talked ever since they arrived. Biting down on my bottom lip in worry, I slide into the drivers seat while Fang buckles Riddle into her carseat in the back; he slides into the passenger's seat a moment later.

I looked over at him then grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers, "Have you spoken to my mom lately?"

He nods slowly, "I talked to her last night and she said everything was fine. She decided they would go back to Arizona next week because Ella's starting school again." I nod and he squeezes my hand then makes a move at changing the subject, "Iggy's starting to think he doesn't like Ella anymore. In fact, I hear he's taken quite a large liking to Nudge," he gives me a small wink and I smile widely.

"Uncle Iggy and Aunt Nudge are getting married?!" Riddle exclaims from the back in that chirpy tone she has. I almost slam on the brakes I'm so startled by the sudden sound of her squealing in the back. Fang had once again dragged me to our special place where nothing can break the barriers and drag us out kicking and screaming.

Fang chuckles and turn in his seat so he can look back at her, "Not yet, Princess. But when we get home I want you to ask them when they plan on getting married. And say they're perfect for eachother," Fang instructs and Riddle squishes her eyebrows together.

"Why do I have to, Daddy?" she questions and I shoot her a look through the rearview mirror, giving her a wink at her stubborn tone.

"Please, Princess? I'll take you for ice-cream tomorrow and let you get as much as you want," he bribes.

"Okay! Deal!" Riddle exclaims happily and goes back to hugging her panther to her chest and looking out the window.

I, however, slap Fang in his open chest with the back of my hand. "You do not bribe your three-year-old daughter, Fang!" I exclaim but there's a smile on my face. He straightens up and gives me this look; it's a look that tells me he's just faking and he wants to laugh.

"Sorry, Darling," he winks after and I turn back to the road, my cheeks starting to burn as he continues to gaze at me from the side. I pull up into the driveway and get out, unbuckling Riddle and helping her out of the tall jeep. She immediately runs inside, screaming for Nudge and Iggy to hurry and go into the living room.

Fang chuckles and follows her, while I grab her bookbag and shut the front door behind us. When I get to the living room, both Nudge and Iggy are on the couch with cheeks burning the color of a fresh red apple. Riddle is sitting on the floor, looking up at them expectantly with an innocent smile planted on her rosy red lips. Fang is probably blending into a wall somewhere because I knew he wouldn't miss this for anything right now. Nudge clears her throat and opens her mouth but, for once, she can't seem to come up with something to say. After five minutes of watching the two bird kids on the couch struggle and stutter to say something, I decide to help.

"Riddle, nap time, let's go!" I call and she frowns, sighs, then gets up and trudges with me to her bedroom. Halfway up the stairs, I reach down and pick her up so she can wrap her arms around my neck and snuggle her head in my shoulder. When I get to her bedroom, I sit her on her bed and remove her shoes and coat then I pull her hair free. It spills down and over her shoulders in smooth waves and I have her lay down; I pull the blankets to her chin.

"Mommy, I'm super tired," RIddle murmurs and I smile then kiss her forehead, brushing hair from her eyes.

"I know, so get some sleep. I love you, Hun, with all my heart," I whisper as to not disturb her as she was already falling asleep.

"I love you too, Mommy, with all my heart, and Daddy," Riddle says quietly right before I leave her room, shutting the door behind me. Trudging downstairs, I find Iggy and Nudge still on the couch and staring at the spot Riddle was just sitting at. Rolling my eyes with a small sigh, I slap the back of their heads as I pass behind the couch.

Nudge finally stutters out as if that gave her a boost, "May, I've always wanted to get married in May." Then she looks around and sees that she just embarrassed herself in front of us all. "Sorry, I'm going to go see if Angel needs help with her homework," she gets up and practically sprints down the hall to Angel's room.

Iggy gets up as well, muttering, "May," under his breath over and over again as he left the room and went to his own bedroom.

****"Fang!" I shout and slap him on the back of the head as soon as he reappears, laughing at the others embarrassment. He yelps before I spin on my heel and go to the kitchen to start on dinner.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Ten**_

"Max! Max! Have you seen my purse?!" Angel screams from some other room in the house. My eyes move from the pot on the stove to the kitchen table where a cream clutch sat near the edge. Angel had been screaming and freaking out ever since that Andrew kid from her school invited her to play lazer tag with some of their friends. However, Angel told me he had a girlfriend that reminded her a lot of Brigid in a way; Fang winced every time someone said her name because he knew she had been flirting with him by now.

Tonight was taco-lasagna night and it's been a week since Riddle asked Iggy and Nudge when they were going to get married. Ever since, Iggy and Nudge had left the room whenever one of them entered the same room. They were awkward around each other and passed uneasy looks between each other when they did stay in the same room. No one liked the tension wafting through the house, except Fang, who loved to tease Iggy about it. Ella came over yesterday just to notice something was up and then she freaked when we told her about it.

She claimed that she liked Iggy, and that was enough to make Nudge stand back and let the two work out whatever they had. It was painful watching Nudge leave the room whenever Ella and Iggy did start to cuddle or something. During those moments, Iggy would longingly watch Nudge leave as if he wanted to go with her. Obviously, Iggy was torn between the two girls and was messing with both of them on accident as he tried to figure it out. His relationship problems weren't the only relationship problems lingering around this house anymore.

It was true Fang and I were a lot closer to the point we acted like a couple, but it wasn't official. For some reason, Fang was hesitating on asking me exactly what he wanted to ask me, and that bothered me. It felt like he was hesitating because he didn't know if he actually wanted to be with me again. When it did seem like he was going to ask me, we were always interrupted around the middle of the sentence. Sometimes is was Riddle, sometimes it was Angel, and even Gazzy or Iggy sometimes interrupted during rare moments.

I roll my eyes and shred some more cheese into a long glass pan, "Yes, Angel, I have seen your purse!" She appears in the doorway of the kitchen seconds later, hair perfectly curled as always and bright blue eyes wide. Even though she had literally been flying around the house in a frantic search, she still looked calm and picture-perfect. "It's over on the table, sweety, just like where you always put it after school" I sigh and she runs to the table, snatching up the purse and then rushing over to me.

She wraps her arms tightly around my waist in a sort of hug I couldn't return since I had cheese in one hand and a cheese shredder in the other. "Thanks, Max! Andrew's mom will be here any second to pick me up," she said, practically bouncing in place. This boy had done something to my baby girl; she was giddier than when she got Celeste for free.

Fang strode into the kitchen, "I still don't like that she won't have a chaperone all night," he says, frowning deeply. He came behind me as Angel moved away, rolling her eyes in the true pre-teen fashion she had. I felt a new, stronger pair of arms wrap around my waist and Fang rested his chin on my shoulder; I felt my lips lift into a smile.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, "I already spoke with Andrew's mom about that kind of thing. She assured that she's taking all of the kids to the place and then taking them home. They won't have any alone time with six other children tagging along," I try to calm his nerves a little bit.

If it wasn't for how old Angel was, I would think she was one of Fang's children as well especially at times like this. Fang was protective over Angel like he was protective over Riddle; he acted like Angel was his own daughter. Technically, he was the father in the house; I never got in his way when he was making rules unless the rule was completely unreasonable. Angel acted like she hated him at times, but she always got over it and came back to apologize. One night during an all-night terrible thunderstorm, both Angel and Riddle ended up in bed with us.

"Fang, nothing's going to happen! I told you, Andrew has a girlfriend and he doesn't like me anyways," she sighs, looking down at her pink flats. The head leaves my shoulder and looks over at Angel; he kisses my temple then pulls away.

"Come on Ange," I hear Fang say, "let's go have a quick talk about guys and the way they show a girl they like her." She snorts humorlessly, but follows him to the living room anyways, probably believing she had nothing to lose.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell echoed around the house, bouncing off the walls; I set my cheese and cheese shredder down. I wipe my hands down on a hand towel and walk to the front door, planting on a smile like I tended to do when meeting another parent. I looked through the window beside the front door to check out the person on the porch, still careful. A woman with long brown hair, bright hazel eyes, and wearing a floral dress stood in front of the door. I glanced down at my black skinny jeans, red high-tops, and long-sleeves tight red shirt.

Sighing to myself, I swing open the front door with that smile still stretching my lips upwards. "Hi, you must be Mrs. Raven," I take her out-stretched hand, shaking it just a little bit as she studies me for a second.

"You must be Mrs. Ride?" she says but it comes out more as a question; I glance to the side where a young boy is standing. I laugh a bit, realizing she thought I was Angel's real mother and that I could be married as well.

"No, I'm Max, Angel's adoptive mother, and I'm not married, either," I tell her just as I feel Fang's presence behind me. "This is Nick, Angel's adoptive father," I introduce and he politely takes her hand, shaking it a bit. Angel squeezes between us and emerges in front of Andrew; she blushes and steps to the side quickly.

Mrs. Raven smiles again, "Hi, Angel, are you all ready?" she asks and Angel nods, giving off a shy smile. I glance over at Fang warily to see him practically killing Andrew with his eyes, I nudge him in the gut with my elbow. He turns his gaze to me, not even flinching at my hit even though my elbow was stinging in pain.

They finally leave after Mrs. Raven gets my phone number and Fang and I watch them drive away. I look at Fang, shaking my head at him, "Way to scar a child for life, Fang, I can't wait until Riddle starts liking a guy and starts dating."

"Then keep waiting because she doesn't get to even look at a guy like Angel did until she's eighteen and out of this house." He tells me seriously and I laugh, kissing his cheek quickly then returning to the kitchen to finish dinner. "What can I help with?" he asks, quickly kissing my shoulder and sending a long shudder down my back.

I glance at him quickly, "You can go bribe Riddle to clean her room," I offer, shooting him a smile when he openly winces at just the thought. He grumbles all the way out of the kitchen; Riddle had a terrible stubbornness she got from both Fang and I.

That night Fang unexpectedly shows up in the doorway of our room as I was searching for my favorite pajamas. "Hey, you don't work tomorrow, do you?" he asks, watching my bare back since I had stupidly stripped before I found the pajamas. He only got in because I gave him a key that can unlock every room in the house; it was a copy of my own. So there I was with my back to him in the matching lacy red undergarments set Tess got me last year.

"Come on in," I sigh, still searching for those stupid pajamas that I could've sworn I washed just a few days ago. Fang chuckles and enters the room all the way, shutting and locking the door behind him. "No, I don't work in the morning, why?" I glanced at him over my shoulder, watching as he relaxed on the bed. After another frustrated second, I whirled on him with my hands planted on my hips. "Have you seen my black tank and red shorts? The pajamas I like so much, you know?"

His eyes roamed up and down me before he grinned slyly, "Maybe, but why would you want to wear those? I like that outfit a lot better," I snatched a pillow from the bed and hit him in the head, reaching into one off his drawers after.

"You are such a guy," I grumbled, pushing some dark jeans and black boxers aside to find some shirts. Wow, there was such of collection of charcoal gray, black, gray, extremely dark red, extremely dark green, and just a few white. "And you have such a nice fashion sense," I mumbled and Fang chuckled from the bed. A black shirt that reached my mid-thighs easily slid over my head and I spun around, satisfied.

Fang says, "Anyways, I wanted to know if you would take a little fly with me, just the two of us without interruptions." His arms were around me in the next split second and he tossed me onto the bed; I laughed as he landed beside me. He rolled so he was hovering over me, his arms on either side of me and his face right above mine.

"Mm," I pretended to think about it, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck and biting down on my bottom lip. "I think I will go for a fly with the father of my child," I had to think of something to say since I couldn't say 'boyfriend'. Fang dropped a bit, putting some more of his weight on me and inching his face even closer to my own.

His lips brushed against mine just a bit as he said, "You want to leave in an hour?" and I nod, unable to speak without shaking. "Great, wear something warm and meet me on the back porch," he moved to just kiss my forehead. Then he smoothly got to his feet and left me there; I glared at his back as he left, smirking smugly.

***Nudge's POV***

I groaned, dropping my pencil on top of the half-finished essay I had worked on for the past three hours. No matter how hard I tried or what I did, I couldn't focus when Ella and Iggy were spending Ella's last few hours in Alaska at her hotel. She would no doubt ask him to just go back with her to Arizona and he would probably agree and go with her. There was nothing here keeping him back or at least it was nothing he knew of since the one reason was too shy. I groaned, folding my arms on the top of the desk and dropping my head down on my arms.

School was terrible with multiple people still asking me about the flock and our travels and what was happening now. It was great at first, being recognized as the famous girl with the wings that actually work and aren't glued on. After a while, though, it got annoying with people only wanting to be my friend because I was that famous girl. They wanted to meet the rest of the flock, too, and get autographs or flirt to their hearts content. Iggy and the others were the only people I really trusted anymore because of all those fake people just pretending to like me.

There was a sudden knock on the door that made me jump, startled; the old days were still getting to me. My knees had knocked straight up into the table, causing the furniture to shake and tumble over quickly. I yelped, falling from my chair, seeing the door slam open and a pair of dark blue toms come into my line of vision. Out of everyone, I was the clumsiest especially when startled and now a mess was spread around a part of my room. The desk was holding down my legs and I winced because I knew the table was bruising my legs.

"Nudge!" the person that walked into the room removed the table quickly and then kneeled down next to me. Bright blue-gray eyes stared into my own and I blinked, looking down and away from Iggy; his hand wrapped around my upper arm. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks worriedly while I scramble to my feet, pulling my arm out of his grasp again.

I started picking up papers, "I'm fine, Iggy, what are you doing here? I thought you were spending the day with Ella since she leaves tomorrow morning. Or maybe you're going back with them, so you came back here to spend the day with us because you felt bad. I mean it's not like you have anything here that's holding you back. If you love Ella, then you should probably go with her anyways. And, besides, love is the most-," I was going to continue. That is, until my mouth was covered by a hand and I saw Iggy looking at me, confused.

"Nudge, I don't love Ella," he says seriously.

"Wait, what?" I pulled his hand away from my mouth to ask.

He looked away from me, "Look, I don't love Ella. I like her, but I don't love her. I don't love anyone other than in the usual family kind of love."

I nodded, "Thanks for your help, but I think you should leave." I murmur; he gives me another confused look before nodding and leaving my room, shutting the door behind him. As soon as he's gone, I drop onto my bed and pull my knees to my chest, feeling tears building in my eyes quickly. He only liked Ella, I told myself sadly, of course he only liked Ella.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Wishing**_

_**Max**_

_**Eleven**_

In an hour, I had Nudge and Angel completely make me look casual, but still like I was going on a date. Angel had gotten home earlier than expected and she was happy to get to do my hair and outfit with Nudge. Gazzy had thankfully put Riddle to bed for me after reading her three bedtime stories until she finally settled down. The girls informed me that Fang was the one that tucked in Riddle before she fell asleep, and I just found it adorable. No one really could've guessed Fang, of all people, would be great with children at just eighteen or so.

Now I was wearing a pair of red skinny jeans, a low-cut long-sleeved plain black top, my black leather jacket, and some black knee-high heeled boots. Just like he said, Fang was leaning against the house on the back porch and he grinned as I pushed through the door. Without us saying anything, he spread his wings and took off into the dark night sky smoothly. He always was a show off especially when it came to us flying and taking off or landing. I shed my leather jacket and spread my own wings, taking into the air next to him with a short push off the porch.

Flying for the first time for real after years of having to stay at home taking care of Riddle was amazing. Fang and I flew with me above him since he was still convinced I might randomly fall out of the sky like I've done so many times before. He kept ahead of me, swerving or turning every which way since he was the one that knew where we were going. My hair flew out behind me, flapping soundlessly as we pushed ourselves faster and faster. I could've gone superspeed, but I was enjoying the flight too much to make it go by faster.

I was starting to become less aware of my surroundings when Fang suddenly reached up and grabbed my hand. We hovered in the air, Fang flashing me a quick smile before he tugged me downwards towards a tall mountain. He circled it about halfway before landing on the ledge of a cave, pulling me down with him where I stumbled. Chuckling, Fang helped me gain my balance again and entwined our fingers, tugging me towards the inside of the cave. I almost came to a complete stop when I saw what he had taken the time to set up for us.

Four thick king-sized comforters were piled on top of each other to make something as comfortable as a mattress. Two picnic baskets obviously filled with food sat beside the blanket and on top of one basket were two wine glasses with two different types of wine. Lit candles were set up and even red rose petals were thrown across the ground. I had a feeling Fang got Nudge and Angel in on this for some help considering there was one pillow and one blanket to use on the makeshift mattress. Fang tugged me farther into the cave towards the mattress.

"You look gorgeous, by the way," he tells me as we settle down on the mattress and I blush, looking down. I unzip my boots and throw them off to the side, watching Fang pour the wine into the glasses and he passed me one. Tonight he was wearing a short-sleeve loose black shirt, dark wash jeans, and black combat boots. His leather jacket was thrown across the bottom of the mattress and I threw my own jacket on top of his.

I glanced around at everything again, "This is... amazing, Fang. When you asked me to go for a fly, I thought we'd stop somewhere for food, but it looks like you set up for the whole night." He smirked and got extremely close to me, his face only an inch or two away from my own; I swallowed harshly.

"Maybe I did set it for the whole night," he murmured, and then he pulled away and went through a picnic basket like nothing happened. I gape at his back, snapping back to when he was getting ready to turn back to look at me with a dish of some sort in his hands. Taking a sip of my wine and feeling the bitter taste on my tongue was enough to get me to ignore Fang's amazing eyes watching me closely.

For the next two hours we just eat and talk about nothing and everything, him telling me he was quitting to get a different job. "You can't be a fireman, Fang, do you know how flammable feathers are?!" I exclaimed, getting a little hysterical. He wanted to dive into fires and crumbling buildings for a living and he was acting like it was the best job in the world.

"Max, I think we all know by now that when I set my mind to do something, I'm going to do it. You of all people should know no one can stop me, not even you," he looks at me, taking my hand from the mattress and entwining our fingers again.

"I know, but I don't want you to get hurt, or worse... die! Fang, think about this. You have a daughter now, and we just found each other after years. If something happened to you, I wouldn't know what to do about myself or about Riddle." I groan, just thinking about Fang getting hurt on the job hurt me.

Fang used his free hand to gently rub between my wings like he knew I loved so much even after the past years. "Max, nothing's going to happen to me. I'll most likely end up be stuck outside with the hose for a while because I'll be a rookie. And then when they do let me go into the burning places, I promise I'll be careful. You have to trust me on this one, Max; this is something that I want to do with my life now that we're safe."

My eyes lock onto his, seeing how serious he was being about taking this job; he really wanted to do this. "And you swear you would think things through first? I've read stories about firemen not thinking things through and plunging into burning buildings. Then they end up dying, and... that can't happen to you."

He cups my face and makes sure I can't look away from his gaze. "I promise you that I won't be like you, and I will think everything through before I do it. Okay?" I give in and we talk for another hour, finishing off the food in the last basket before laying back.

Fang's head rests on the pillow while I curl into his side, resting my head on his chest and pulling the blanket over us. "What are you waiting for?" I ask quietly, looking up at him from where I was watching our fingers play.

"I don't know, Max, so," he rolls over and hovers over me like he had earlier in the night and reaches up to push some hair out of my eyes. "Will you, Maximum Ride, consider ever being not only the mother of my child, but my girlfriend as well?" He leans down and kisses my neck, I immediately reach up and wrap my arms around his neck.

He kisses the base of my throat and I giggle a bit, "Yes, Fang, I will be your girlfriend," I pull his face up to mine. Our lips for the first time in a long time finally press together and I pull him on top of me as much as possible. My head was spinning from the heat of the kiss that sent sparks flying around my head to intoxicate me.

I push my hands under his shirt, feeling his smooth eight-pack of abs that I loved to touch, to kiss. He pulled away long enough to strip the shirt off and throw it next to our picnic setting; I gripped his shoulders. Opening my mouth to his tongue, he explored my mouth and a familiar tingling feeling ran down my spine. My shirt was tugged over my head and thrown to the side along with his. One hand left the side of my head to fondle with my chest, massaging me and making me moan into his mouth.

Fang smirked, the hand leaving my chest and going down to the button on my jeans to pop it and pull the zipper down. I helped him pull them off and smiled as his hand gently squeezed my hip and then he moved to take off my bra. Luckily, I had taken Nudge's advice and the bra was a front-clasp to make it easier for Fang to unclasp it. The dark green lacy material fell off of my shoulders and he put it off to the side. He pulled away from me, using his hands on each side of my body to hover over me.

"You're still gorgeous," he said as he pecked my lips, "beautiful," he kissed me for another couple of seconds. And then he touched my stomach, making circles under my bellybutton and then going around my bellybutton. "Yeah, you're definitely still the most amazing girl that I have ever and will ever see."

I giggled, running my fingers through his hair, "Shut up and kiss me." And so he did.

**Nudge's POV**

"Ah!" Nudge exclaimed and sat up straight, sweat coating her forehead as she panted because of her dream. It was the same nightmare that had been pestering her for months even though she hadn't told anyone about it.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to get to sleep before midnight just to wake up at unruly hours of the morning. Nudge got out of bed, wishing Max was in the house so she could talk to her about the dream. Instead, Nudge went farther down the hall and to a familiar door; she hesitated to knock and ended up just pushing open the door. Iggy was fast asleep in his bed, Gazzy asleep in the bed beside his. Biting on her bottom lip, Nudge made her way past Gazzy's bed to get to Iggy's.

Sitting on the edge, she poked Iggy's shoulder again and again until he groaned, his eyelids fluttering. Icy blue eyes locked onto chocolate brown; Iggy blinked rapidly to make sure he wasn't still dreaming. "Nudge?" he whispered, confused. He noticed how Nudge looked like she about to burst into tears and he reached out towards her to gently grab her hand. "Are you alright? Why are you awake? Have you been crying?"

Sniffling, Nudge realized that she had been crying in her sleep again, and she looked away to wipe at her eyes. "I'm sorry I woke you up, Iggy. It's just that Max and Fang are gone, so I... I guess I just needed someone to talk to. See, I had this nightmare that keeps coming back for the past few months and I can't sleep anymore."

Iggy squeezed her hand comfortingly, and he sat up in his bed; the blanket that was covering his chest fell to his wait. Nudge blushed, doing her best not to stare at Iggy's perfect chest while he thought about what he was going to do. He couldn't let Nudge go back to her room where she'll just end up not being able to go back to sleep. She and Angel no longer shared a room ever since the construction on the house was finished partly. The second room was still being worked on, so Iggy still shared a room with Gazzy; he knew what he could do.

"Come on," Iggy got up and tugged Nudge up from the edge of his bed; Nudge blushed in the darkness at the thoughts she was suddenly getting from seeing his chest. She confusedly walked behind him, and he steered her back down the hallway to get to her bedroom.

Shutting the door behind them, Iggy yawned and went over to Nudge's bed; he laid down with ease with her hand still in his. Hesitantly, Nudge laid down next to him; he let go of her hand and she rolled on her side so her back was facing him. Next thing Nudge knows, Iggy is wrapping his arm over Nudge's waist and pulling himself closer to her. Nudge's breathing goes uneven instantly while Iggy buries his face in her soft hair. Every time Iggy breathes in, the smell of strawberries instantly overwhelms his senses, and he loves it.

"Do you mind, Nudge? It's really cold in here and your blankets aren't much of a help," Iggy chuckles next to her ear. Iggy was lying, he just needed an excuse to hold Nudge to his chest for the first time in ages. The sound of his deep, tired, throaty laugh made shudders run down her back, and she finds that Iggy's warmth was a slight help.

She fights to keep her breathing even again, "Yeah, it's fine."

"Great," Iggy's mouth was pressed to her bare shoulder and he smiles against her skin.

Nudge finds the hand that was hanging over her waist because of the arm loosely wrapped around her. She takes the chance and slips her fingers into his, "Goodnight, Iggy," she whispers in the dark of her room.

Iggy replies just as quiet, "Goodnight, Nudgey."

Nudge woke with a start from the front door slamming shut downstairs; Max's furious whispering sounded next. Yawning, Nudge carefully slipped out of Iggy's hold and stood from her bed; she tiptoed out into the hallway and then she went about halfway downstairs. Fang and Max were at the front door, Max only in Fang's shirt and Fang only in his jeans; he was smirking at Max's pissed expression. Glancing at the wall clock, Nudge found that it was five in the morning and the two were trying to sneak in. Max had her clothes in her arms, her undergarments on top of the pile, confirming Nudge's suspicions.

Fang leaned down to whisper something in Max's ear, something that made Max blush tomato red. Finally, Max gave in, giggling as Fang wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. They kissed, Nudge wrinkling up her nose at once again seeing her parent-figures making out in front of her. Max giggled again and pulled away, sticking her tongue out at Fang as she made a run for the stairs. A scream almost left Max's mouth when she finally noticed Nudge standing on the stairs, her arms crossed over her chest.

"What are you doing up?!" Max exclaims in a whisper-shout.

Nudge looks over the two of them, who had obviously slept together; Fang was a cool as a cucumber while Max looked like she had just gotten caught by her mother. "Well, I was sleeping," Nudge murmured; Max shot Fang a deadly look. He grinned and shrugged sheepishly while Nudge continued, "And then I heard some weird noises."

Fang smirks, "Sorry about that, Nudge, we were just going upstairs to get some sleep; it's been a rough night."

"I'm sure it has been, considering it's you and Max we're talking about and not normal horny teenagers," Nudge smirks. Max flushed bright red as Nudge continued, "I just hope it wasn't so rough that we'll be expecting another stubborn child."

Max gasped, "Nudge!" she exclaims quietly, "We were safe; you don't have to worry about another pair of feet running around. We have enough on our plates right now," she glances at Fang, who looked slightly put down. He wouldn't even tell anyone else, but Fang definitely wanted another child of his own in the future. Riddle was amazing, he loved his daughter, but the thought of having another one thrilled him.

"Right, well I'm going to sleep," Nudge goes back upstairs; Fang and Max go back downstairs quietly.

The two had planned on checking on the kids before going to bed, but they didn't want to risk the others, too. Nudge went back into her bedroom to find that Iggy was still there, so she knew he wasn't just a dream. She slides back into bed, and Iggy instantly grabbed her around the waist to pull her back into his chest. It was as if some invisible force had reached out and yanked the two together on instinct. Nudge relaxed, now curled into Iggy's side instead of him hugging her from behind.

Her head was on his hard, but comfortable chest with his arms wrapped around her waist. She was slightly laying on him with their legs tangled together, and one of her hands was flat against the slightly pale skin of his chest. It wasn't long before she drifted off, her big brown eyes falling shut as she relaxed into his body heat. She couldn't help but think about how it was so natural to relax into him as if she was meant to be there. Her, not Ella; Iggy didn't feel the same, though- he didn't realize that Ella wasn't right for him.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Wishing**_

_**Gazzy**_

_**Twelve**_

"No, don't go in there!" Lilly screamed, covering her face with her hands but peeking through her fingers to still watch the movie. I grin over at her, watching as she clutches a pillow to her chest; she didn't notice me watching her. Suddenly, she screamed when the terrible actress in the movie screamed and she launched herself at me. She buried her face in my neck while the vampire tore the actress's neck out on the TV screen.

I hesitantly rub her back, her fists tightly holding my shirt in her grip; I found it adorable that she got so scared even when it comes to really old and cheesy horror movies. This was the third horror movie we had watched, but the first two didn't scare her so much. For this one, though, she was screaming at the screen as if the people could hear her. Everything was so predictable, but she still jumped and screamed when it happened. By the point, her hair was in a mess from where it was in a ponytail and her eyes were always wide; she was still gorgeous.

Lilly was starting to breathe harder as I rubbed her back slowly as if me doing this had an affect on her. We had started to have movie dates like this ever since I hung out with her when she was babysitting Riddle when Fang and Max went out on their date. Yes, we've both agreed that these are movie dates and not just two friends hanging out. The most we've done is hug before I head back home at night and in the hallways at school. I haven't gotten up enough courage to ask her to be my girlfriend; I'm not like Iggy or Fang when it comes to confidence.

"Gaz?" Lilly looks up at me, her beautiful green eyes wide.

Pushing some of her red hair back, I twist a strand mindlessly between my fingers. "Yeah Lilly?" I look at her expectantly.

She blushes, suddenly embarrassed, "W-will you help me with something?"

"Yeah, of course, what's up?"

"I- I want you to, um, I want you to be, uhh..." she laughs nervously.

I give her a strange look, "Are you alright? You seem... nervous."

Once again, she blushes, "Well, I... I was just thinking, and... Iwantyoutobemyfirstkiss," she says as fast as possible.

"Hun, you're going to have to slow that down for me. I don't understand gibberish," I laugh, and she giggles a little bit. "It can't be that bad, Lilly, tell me what you want help with and I'll do whatever I can."

She takes a deep breath, "You promise you won't get weirded out?"

"I've been hanging out with you for almost two months, Lilly; nothing you do weirds me out anymore," I laugh.

Lilly nods, still seemingly nervous however as she straightens up and stared me straight in the eye. "G-Gazzy, I was just thinking yesterday, and I realized that we had been hanging out a lot, right?"

Slowly, I nod, starting to wonder if I should be worried about where this conversation is going anymore. "Lilly, are you trying to say that you don't want to hang out so much? Am I suffocating you? I'm sorry, I just... I really like you, so I like to hang out with you, but if you need space then that's fine. I should've known, I'm so-"

"Gaz!" Lilly exclaims, cutting me off before I could continue to ramble like a blubbering fool. She giggles, grabbing both of my hands, "Calm down, I really like you, too. This has nothing to do about wanting to have space, I would hate for you to stop hanging out with me so much. I have no idea what I'd do if we didn't spend so much time together. Anyways, all I wanted to say was that I wanted you to be my first kiss."

I think I actually mentally blacked out for a while until Lilly started to snap her fingers in front of my face. "Oh," I muttered, looking down with a pink tink coating my cheeks; I glanced up at her to see she was almost as red as her hair.

"It was just a suggestion, Gaz, I mean you don't _have_ to if you don't like me like that..." she trails off, her blush deepening.

Taking in a deep breath, I take her small hand and run my thumb over her knuckles like Fang told me to do. He said to get her to want the kiss so bad that it hurts before I actually lean in and kiss her. We had gone over this so much that it was permanently ground into my brain; I just hoped his advice would work. I could just barely hear Lilly's breath hitching as I look up, making sure my eyes locked onto hers. Fang told me to use my blue eyes as much as I could because, apparently, blonde hair and blue eyes is a huge want when it comes to girls other than Max.

Lilly stares back at me, her own gorgeous eyes widened to the size that Nudge's go to when she's using Bambi eyes. Very, very slowly I lean closer and she leans in, too, so our foreheads are together; our eyes are still locked. I took a second to study the freckles on her cheekbones and nose that I love so much on her milky skin. Finally, I close the distance to hesitantly push my lips against hers; we both freeze. Obviously, I hadn't had my first kiss yet either since I was on the run for most of my pathetic life.

So, we just sat there like that for what had to be forever with our eyes shut; it wasn't awkward at all, actually. There was something in the kiss, something that made my mind spin and my stomach flip. I was just enjoying the fact that I had the courage to even kiss her in the first place. We both pulled back, our eyes opening simultaneously; she was smiling so wide that I couldn't help but grin, too. I grabbed her hands again, my grin turning into a nervous smile that I hoped didn't look as pathetic as I thought.

"Will you, uh, be my girlfriend?" I ask nervously, fiddling with both of our fingers.

Next thing I know, I'm on the floor with Lilly on my chest as she hugs me tightly around my neck. "Yes! Finally, you asked!" she exclaims happily and pulls away as I wrap my arms up and around her waist. She clears her throat, "I mean," she says in a forced deep voice, "Yeah, cool, I'll be your girlfriend."

I laugh loudly and force my voice to go deep like she had done, "Great, then I guess that makes me your boyfriend, Gorgeous."

Lilly laughs, too, the ringing bell sound music to my ears, "Good, it took you long enough."

She leans down again and kisses me again; I hesitantly start moving my lips against hers to see her reaction. She was startled at first, I could tell, but then she moved along with me until we were kissing like Max and Fang did. Except, I knew how to keep my tongue in my mouth unlike my parent figures. Lilly pulls back when she runs out of air even though- thanks to my air sacks- I could've gone for another good twenty minutes if I wanted. My beautiful girlfriend stares down at me, incredulous; her hands were flat against my chest.

Now I realized why Fang and Max liked that so much; that was probably the most amazing feeling ever. Even getting a burger after months of desert rats wasn't as nice as kissing Lilly; I wondered if that's how Max and Fang felt. I would do that for hours if Lilly would let me; it helps that I really like her and she's gorgeous. In fact, the urge to reach up and kiss her again was getting stronger and stronger. Then I had a mental freak out about when I could kiss her and when I couldn't; that brought on the thought about if Lilly even liked the kiss.

"How are you not breathing hard?" she asks, confused.

I grin quite smugly despite I was having a mental fight with myself, "My wings came with air sacks. It's all part of the bird kid package."

She smiles, "Gosh, you're so lucky. I would love to have wings like you."

Instantly, my smile faded and I sat up easily; Iggy and Fang had started to force me to work out with them and sit ups were a daily thing. "No, Lilly, don't ever say you want wings like me," I tell her seriously; she cocks her head to the side in the adorable way that she has. She's turning me into a big softie; this would not look good on my bird kid image. I'm supposed to be the crazy pyro, not the lovesick pyro; oh well, it was too late.

"Why not, Gaz? What's wrong?"

So, I told her what I had been holding back from telling her ever since I told her that I'm Gazzy from the flock. I told her about how my real parents sold Angel and I to the school without so much as a regret. Then I told her about being raised- if you could call it that- in the school up until Jeb; I told her about him, too. I told her about how we escaped and where Jeb took us; I told her about the "E" house and about how Max was always the leader. I told her about the Erasers, the flyboys, Ari, Dr. Martinez, Lisa, Maya, Total, Akila, Dylan, Sam, Brigid, and everyone else.

She listened intently, especially when I told her about the trip to Antarctica and about the tornado we were sucked into. She found all of it as interesting as I knew she would, especially about Maya and Fang's other flock. When I told her about how Dylan tried to take over Fang's place, her face completely hardened. I knew that she already didn't like him because of his past actions, but she didn't comment all throughout the story. Instead, she listened and made a few sounds of protest all through the story.

When I finished, she was in my lap and we were back on the couch with her head resting on my shoulder as I spoke. "Aw, Gaz," she murmured, pulling back with her hands still clasped around my neck. "I didn't know about all of that; I'm really sorry all of that happened to you and your family; it shouldn't have happened."

I shook my head, "I'm not sorry, actually."

"What do you mean?"

"This is going to sound really cliche. But, everything that happened could've been the things that led me to where I am now. If one of those things went differently, then maybe I wouldn't be where I am today... with you."

She blushes again, hiding her face in my neck, "Shut up," she mumbles. I laugh.

***Angel's POV***

"Psst, Angel."

_Ignore him_, says my inner voice- the one that's usually right. I was trying to ignore Andrew, I really was, but he was starting to get on my nerves. Ever since class began, he had been whispering to me, almost pleading with me to talk to him. But, I couldn't; he had hurt me way too much especially when we were at lazer tag. If Fang found out, Andrew would be dead in a matter of minutes; I had to ignore Andrew. He probably didn't even know that he hurt me, but that wasn't my problem.

"Come on, Ange, talk to me," Andrew whispers urgently.

That was it, I broke, _"WHAT?!"_ and Drew promptly fell out of his chair; he was wide-eyed and staring at me as if he was... scared. It took me a second to realize that I hadn't said that out loud, but I said it in his mind.

My eyes widened as he quickly got up and sat back down in his chair; Miss Cress was staring at him. "Mr. Raven," she says suspiciously, "is everything alright?" the look I sent Drew was one of pleading. If he told anyone about who I was, I would be hounded and questioned and Max would most likely pull me out of school with her stupid paranoia.

He cleared his throat, looking back at Miss Cress, "Everything's fine, Miss Cress, I was just startled by... a bird..."

"A bird, Mr. Raven? Really?" she asked disbelievingly.

I groaned silently and then stared at Miss Cress, making her eyes lock with mine; I hated to do it, but I used my mind control ability. "_Yes, Miss Cress, there was a bird on the window sill and now we can go back to your lesson_," I deadpanned.

She slowly nodded, "Right... there was a bird... now we can go back to the lesson..." she mutters to herself. Rubbing at my temples, I refuse to look at Drew as I tap my pencil nervously on my desk.

The bell rings and I grab my bag before getting up and rushing out of the room; I wasn't fast enough. I knew I should've kept calm and ignored him; I knew I should have, but he could be so darn annoying sometimes. Drew's hand caught my arm and he forcefully pushed me into the closest janitor's closet before anyone could notice. It was dark for Drew, but my raptor vision made it easy for me to make out the mops and brooms. Drew reached up, grabbing the chain hanging from the small lightbulb and he yanked on it.

Light flooded into the room, but it was dim and Drew could still hardly see, but it was good enough for him. "What was that back there?" he asked straightforwardly.

I tried to play dumb at first, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Drew. But, I do know that we both have to get to class," I swallow the lump in my throat. I knew I could mind control him into forgetting it if this got too serious, but then I would feel bad. I had been cutting down on controlling and reading people for months so I only did it when it was necessary; I didn't want to break that streak in one day.

Drew rolls his eyes, "Don't play that innocent act, Angel. Tell me what happened back in the classroom," he demands. The dim light makes him unable to see the glare that I was sending him right now.

"What part?" I continue my playing dumb scheme.

"How about when I heard your voice in my head?!"

"You hear voices in your head? Maybe you should get that checked out," I smirk; I think about what I said and realized I had been hanging out with Max too much.

Drew practically growls at me, "Don't make this harder than it has to be, Angel; I know you know what I'm talking about. You yelled "what" in my head and then you... you brainwashed Miss Cress! I watched you do that, too, and don't act like you have no idea what I'm talking about! I just have one question and then you can go, deal?"

I huff, crossing my arms over my chest, "I don't have to answer to you, Drew, and you can't make me. Go find your slut of a girlfriend and leave me alone, why don't you?!" I exclaim and reach for the door handle.

I had told Max about how Drew had ditched me as soon as we got to the laser tag place to go hang out with Penelope. Later on, I asked him if he wanted to go get some ice cream or something and he had taken on this other personality. He had gone on Penelope's side for a second and told me to go by myself and to just leave him alone. Braden and one of Drew's friends, Caleb, had come with me instead and they even bought my ice cream before me. Max told me after I told her about that I should show him what's it's like by being rude to him, so I am.

Drew looks taken aback by my response, "Penelope isn't a slut," he says weakly, but he doesn't sound so convinced himself.

"It doesn't matter; I still don't have to answer to you," I snapped, "now let me out of this closet before I scream." Next thing I know, Drew has me pinned against the wall with a shelf digging into my wings. "Ow! Stop it," I exclaim, wiggling and kicking out at him; he drops me instantly, but blocks the door.

He looks at me seriously, "Angel, are you in the flock?"

I'm still for a second, staring at him in shock, "H-how did you know?"

He takes in a deep breath, "Because my parents are Erasers... and so am I."


	13. Chapter 13

_**Wishing**_

_**Fang**_

_**Thirteen**_

"He's not a child anymore, Max," I sighed for the hundredth time ever since we started this conversation. Gazzy had announced that he was going out with Lilly now at dinner, and now Max was basically panicking. She was complaining about how Gazzy was too young, even though the two are the age Max and I were when we got together.

That was one of the best ages to be back when we were still on the run because Max had finally admitted that she liked me. I could see why Max was reacting like she is; she saw Gazzy as her own little boy, which was reasonable. She had, after all, raised him basically since he was a baby like he was her own son. Even now, when she has a child of her own, she still sees him as her little boy; I understood. I saw Angel as my little girl, but I think I have a good two years before she starts seeing boys like I saw Max.

There was one thing that was bothering me; Riddle already had serious guy friends and I was worried. She was four, she should be thinking that boys still have cooties; she should be running when a boy gets near her. But, nope, she's too sweet to run and instead she happily meets a boy and befriends him. I could tell that she would soon be more of a handful than she already is because of boys. If any of them lay a hand on my baby or Angel- my other baby-, they would be dead in seconds; I was snapped out of my thoughts by Max.

Max whirled on me, murder raging in her eyes, "He is a child, Fang! He's my little boy, and now he's... he's growing up, and it just isn't... it isn't fair!" she exclaims as tears spring up into her eyes. I curse mentally and quickly get up from our bed to wrap my arms around her and pull her quickly into my chest. She fights my hold for a second before she burst into tears and clung onto me as if for dear life.

I lead her back to sit on our bed, her curled up in the fetal position on my lap while I calmly stroked her hair. "You and I have to face it, Max, they're growing up and we can't do anything about it." She hiccups, but nods, giving in; she cries for a few minutes longer before her sobs turn into nothing more but sniffles.

The flock and I felt bad; Max had gone through a lot these past four years and we weren't much of a help. She was juggling bills, a daughter, a boyfriend, school issues with the kids, and she has to worry about the publicity. We were helping out as much as possible by getting jobs, but Nudge is still worrying about college. Over the past couple years, she had turned into a little genius, and she was getting early scholarships already. But, with the way things were going now, she was considering going to a college in Alaska so she could stay at home.

Max looks up at me, "Come on, I need your help with dinner before the Fritz's get here," she sighed tiredly.

"The who's?" I ask, confused.

She gulped audibly, "I forgot to tell you, didn't I? Dammit, I knew I forgot something! You remember how Riddle was talking about her new little friend... Sam?" I nod tensely, the name bringing back memories that I wished would disappear forever. "Yeah, I invited him and his parents over for dinner, and they'll be here in about two hours."

"What?!" I glare at her as she jumps to her feet and sprints out of our room. "MAX!" I yell, chasing after her down the hallway and straight into the kitchen.

When I arrive, Max is on the opposite side of the island table so it would take me longer to get to her. She was staring back at me, a look of determination on her facial features even though I could see the worry in her eyes. "Promise me you'll be good, Fang! Come on, this is your daughter's new best friend and his parents, you have to be nice to show that you're a good father, which you are. It's just that they already think badly of us because of how young we were when we had Riddle; promise me!"

I roll my eyes, angrily crossing my arms over my chest, "I don't have to promise anything," I object.

"DADDY!" a voice exclaims before Max can go back to yelling at me.

Then I'm suddenly on the ground, a very happy Riddle sitting on my stomach as she kisses my cheek. "Hey, Babydoll, what's going on?" I ask wrapping an arm around her tiny waist and carefully getting back onto my feet. I fell down on purpose so that Riddle wouldn't bounce off of me- like Max tends to do- and hurt herself.

Riddle grins at me happily, "I want you to come play with me while Mummy fixes dinner," she says. I look at Max, who was clearly giving me a look that said "this-isn't-over", but she smiles at our daughter anyways.

"Go ahead, Hun, play before Sam gets here," the motherly nature in her makes me love her more than I already do, which is nearly impossible. "Oh, and Fang, I'm inviting Lilly and her family over, too, so they can meet everyone else. Have fun!" she grins at me icily; I frown and take Riddle up to her room even though I was brooding on the inside.

**Max's POV**

Okay, so maybe it wasn't very nice to invite people over for dinner without consulting Fang first. I was used to bringing people over for dinner without having to talk to anyone first, though, so I guess I just forgot. Ever since I met Tess and JJ after all of these years, we just instantly clicked because they understood me. They remembered the flock back when we met in that school Anne Walker forced us to go to. Tess moved to Alaska to be with her husband, Blake, and JJ moved to Alaska because she got a job opportunity.

"Iggy! A little help, please!" I yell, glancing anxiously over at the oven clock. The guests would be here in less than an hour and dinner wasn't even halfway finished. Iggy appears in the doorway moments later, taking survey over the mess I called a kitchen.

He raised an eyebrow, "Is the new chef asking the new one for help?" he feigns shock, putting a hand over his heart.

I roll my eyes at him, "No, the terrible chef is telling the amazing one to make dinner while the bad one cleans the living room." Iggy chuckled, bumping me out of the way, basically telling me to leave him to it. I head to the living room, groaning when I see all of the toys scattered on the floor; Angel and Riddle hadn't cleaned up from when they played dress up. "Angel and Riddle Ride, get both of your butts down here right now!" I yell.

"Uh-oh," Fang was standing at the foot of the stairs, his arms crossed over his extremely gorgeous chest. He was smirking, "Mama's mad girls, I would get down here!" he winks at me cockily and then disappears into the kitchen.

Riddle appears first; she comes running down the stairs since I hadn't had a chance to teach her how to fly. I know, I probably should've gotten that over with when she was two or three, but I didn't want to. As soon as she starts flying, that's the breaking point of when she stops being my baby. That's when she becomes a child, a child that will just get older and older until she eventually realizes being a momma's girl isn't cool. I didn't want Riddle to get older like Angel had; I want to keep my baby a baby for as long as possible.

My little girl looks up at me with her wide dark, dark brown eyes that were almost black; I could see the familiar gold specks in the depths. "What's wrong Mommy?" she asks.

"I asked you yesterday to clean up after you and Angel were done playing dress up, what happened?" I cross my arms, trying to remain stern. She was just so adorable and I would break down for her; I had to get back into Leader Max mode and fast. Going for a fly should help with that; I decide that I would go tomorrow just for a little me time.

Riddle bites down on her bottom lip, studying the messy living room, "Oopsie. I'm sorry, Mommy, I guess we just forgot because we wanted to go upstairs and paint you some pictures when we finished."

"Where's Angel, Princess?"

Riddle taps her bottom lip with her finger on the hand that wasn't holding the familiar black panther. "I think she said she was going to go for a fly because she was really sad."

"WHAT?! She just left?!" I exclaimed.

My little girl looks down at the ground, fiddling with her black panther and refusing to make eye contact with me. "Yeah, Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. But, Angel said not to tell anyone or else she wouldn't help me make you a necklace when she got back. I don't know where she went, but I saw something down in the backyard behind the fence. Angel met the thing and then they both just... left."

I was now panicking; not only was my other little girl missing, but I have company coming over for dinner on the same night. "FANG! NUDGE! GAZZY! CODE RED!" I scream, scooping up Riddle and rushing to the front door. "You," I point at my daughter, "stay here with Uncle Iggy, you hear me?" I cut my eyes at her.

She nods quickly, "Yes, Mommy, I promise!" she pouts her lips and salutes me.

Fang, Nudge, and Gazzy all ran in front of me where I was slipping on my bright red trench coat and buttoning it up while trying to put on my combat boots. "Woah, Max, what's going on? Where are you going?" Fang grabs my biceps to make me stop.

"Angel went off with someone, and Riddle said that Angel told her not to tell me; that means that Angel doesn't want me to know about who she's with. So, I'm going over to some of her friends' houses to check if she's there. In the meantime, I want all three of you to go look around here. If you find her, call me," I ordered, shoving my cell phone into my pocket.

Gazzy looked like he was about to faint, "She went off with someone?! On purpose?!"

I knew without asking that he was thinking about the time when Angel was abducted and taken back to the School. "It's okay, Gaz, I'm sure she's fine," I give my little trooper a forced smile and go to the kitchen to tell Iggy to call me if Angel got back before us. The four of us left, separating; the three of them took to the skies while I went to my car to call some numbers while visiting houses.

**Angel's POV***

"I didn't even know Erasers could have a child," I laughed slightly, stepping over yet another fallen tree. My pink high-tops were slipping and sliding on all of the damp leaves that were once covered by snow. Alaska was slowly getting warmer, and all of the previous five inches or so of snow was quickly melting. When I had agreed to this, I didn't think Drew actually meant that we were going to go hiking just to talk.

Drew shrugged, "They didn't either; they thought they could do... you know unprotected without having the chance of getting my mom pregnant. Turns out, Erasers can reproduce other Erasers, even though I don't prefer to call myself that." He winces as if being called an Eraser really did hurt him; Angel felt bad for her friend.

Her past with Erasers was extremely bad, and she knew it hurt him when she flinched away from his touch occasionally. Like, when he tried to take her hand to help her over a log and she literally yanked her hand away. It's just the thought of Drew being one of those _beasts_ that scared her to death, and it brought back memories. All of those days being tormented and hurt by the beasts were getting between her and Drew. After she yanked her hand away from even touching her, Drew hadn't made a move to touch her in any way.

"Really? How come you don't like to be called an Era-... I mean, you know what?" she winked at him playfully.

But he looked dead serious, "It's because my parents were really bad people when they worked at the School. They hurt..._ you,_ Angel. When my mom and I came to pick you up, she immediately recognized you and your family. You were one of the experiments that she and my dad were forced to watch and hurt or capture when they worked there. She feels terrible and so does my dad, but the pay that the School gave was the only thing keeping them alive... free. I don't want to be an Eraser; I don't want to be one of those things that hurt innocent people."

Angel forced herself to get over her fear, and she reached over and grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers. "Then, what do you call yourself?" she asks interestedly, feeling him relax slightly when she grabbed his hand.

"A werewolf," he chuckles at himself.

Giggling to herself, Angel nods, "Alright then, you're a werewolf and I'm a bird."

They don't say anything for a little while in a comfortable silence, just focusing on the life and the nature surrounding them. "Do-," Drew sighs, "I mean, do you ever wish that you could be normal, Angel?"

Angel shook her head, "I do sometimes; the entire flock sometimes wishes they were normal. At one point, we even tried to find our parents for some kind of reassurance that we were once normal, but not anymore. We don't want to be normal," she glances down at their hands when Drew slightly squeezed hers as if for some kind of comfort.

"Why not?" he looked confused.

"It's just that if we were normal, we wouldn't even be the flock because we probably would've never met. We wouldn't have bonded in the School, and we wouldn't have become the family we are. Sure, we've been through a lot- and I mean, a _lot_- of pain, but we went through all of it together. When one of us was down, we had four others to help cheer us up again. I don't need my mom because I have Max, and I don't need some workaholic dad because I have Fang, and I don't need a best friend because I have Nudge. Everything I need, is right there in my flock."

Drew grins, "I see your point. I would much rather only have wings instead of a furry body and wings."

"Wait, so since your parents had artificial wings, you got real ones?" Angel asks.

Her friend nods, "Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's just that I have to be in... Eraser form to use them, and I hate looking like that. Sometimes, I'll change and then I'll just look at myself in the mirror; I give myself nightmares occasionally."

Angel takes a deep breath, "Can I... see?"

"See what?"

"You... in werewolf form," Angel tugs them to a stop, taking both of his hand in hers. She wanted to see him like that; she wanted to see him morf. She wanted to get used to it, and then maybe she could stop flinching away from all of the sudden movements that Drew continuously made while they were walking.

Drew stares at her, wide-eyed, "No. I don't want to scare you, Angel. You're my first real friend since... forever, really."

"And, as your friend, I want to see," she demands.

"You'll run," he insists, tugging his hands away from hers.

Angel furiously shakes her head, "_Please_, Drew, I can take it, okay? I promise I won't run from you," she grabs his arm before he can start walking again.

"Fine," he breathes out, shutting his eyes tightly. Angel stood back, watching as Drew sat on the ground and that was when it started; the first thing that happened was his already long hair got longer and longer. It seemed to attach to his shirt, covering his back and his chest and then covering his legs and then his face. His mouth snapped open and shut as a muzzle was forced to grow where his nose and mouth once was. His hands and feet were turned to paws, his shoes disappearing amongst all of the fur and claws.

"Oh, my God," Angel breathed out as glowing green eyes opened to stare at her. He got to his feet, still at his usual height until someone suddenly tackled him to the ground and they went rolling across the slick leaves in a blur of fur and feathers.


End file.
